Cody frowned as he watched Skarlet leave, frustration rising in him damnit, I need you to work with me. . . Ahh whatever. I can't really deal with this now.
Maria turned to look at Cody, a look of disappointment on her face and her hands fidgeting with each other. She was dealing with a feeling of guilt. "Did I. . . Should I not have done that. Pushed her?" Maria asked hesitantly, looking at Cody with concern.
"Haa, I don't think it's your fault. But honestly she needs to be pushed. So I don't think it's bad. I hope." Cody responded uncertainly, I wanna believe that if I push her hard enough she'll bounce back and break through. But that's not always the case, it might actually be a mistake to push her. . . Damnit I wish I understood why she reacts like that. But she refuses to talk about her past, I can barely even talk to her, she pushes so hard against any form of closeness.
"Sadly, I have some business for a couple days. A bishop and a priestess from the church will be visiting the God Beast's mark and I'm expected to also participate. Theoretically this shouldn't take a whole day, however the church will definitely keep me for meetings and a briefing." Cody explained, feeling some guilt of his own, he avoided her eyes slightly as he rubbed his neck. She smiled softly and grabbed his hand.
"It's fine, I understand of course. Hey, I'll reach out to Skarlet tomorrow. Exercise my authority if I have too, I'm gonna get her to talk to me." Maria assured him, "Focus on your mission. I'll take care of Aguris. I'm the head, this is my city, it's my duty." She smiled confidently, "Oh yeah, Lilly did a lot before she left, and according to what she said she and those connected to her are no longer in Aguris so honestly there shouldn't be anything to worry about in the first place."
"Yeah you're right, I'll leave it to you. Be careful though. I still have a bad feeling, but I'm gonna trust my reliable friend." He said as he patted her on the back, before stepping towards the exit. "See you later Maria!" He waved as he stepped out, she waved as well, a look of light worry flashed past her face but it was overtaken by confidence as she turned around and headed towards her desk.
Cody kinda hoped he'd run into Skarlet at the inn however he didn't, he pushed down that disappointment as he closed the door to his room. He pulled out his bag and began to get dressed, pulling out a Noble's fancy white shirt and buttoning it up. He buttoned the stiff uncomfortable pants and pulled a white cape over his shoulders, a golden chain connecting the two corners to his shoulders. The Cape was adorned with the Church's emblem on the back, he brushed his hair and slid his sword into a shiny golden sheath. He sighed in annoyance as he turned and headed out from the room, he paused as he locked eyes with Aiko. She nodded at him and he smiled softly as she stepped into Skarlet's room. Please break through her wall, it doesn't have to be me.
He passed her room and stepped out into the afternoon sun, pushing all his worries down and started at a brisk jog down the street.
As he stepped out into the forest he pulled out his map, and reminded himself where the mark was situated at. He figured out the direction and started running, in the distance he could see a golden wall. As he approached he summoned his holy energy and the wall opened for him like a door. Cody stepped through and the seemingly empty forest on the other side of the wall shimmered and vanished into a clearing. Trees uprooted and tossed around, Cody approached a massive carving in the ground. It was hundreds of meters across and half his height deep. Blood filled the lower half of the trench, it was about a foot deep. Corpses of animals were strewn about everywhere with their throats slit and drained of blood. Cody frowned as he crouched down and examined it. An old memory came back to him in this moment, ha, I remember when I first encountered proper blood and gore upon coming here that sucked. He frowned, he had trained with the Swordmaster, Wizard, and Assassin at the capital so his skills had been good. But training skills and actually killing something is very different. Cody sighed as he stood up, I executed a death row inmate that was my first kill. Throwing me straight into combat would be stupid. He was tied down and couldn't fight back. After that I would duel them to the death. I had several duels with prisoners before I was finally comfortably with to start dealing with bandits and beasts. I became proficient at killing.
"Cody, good to see you." A hand landed on Cody's shoulder and shocked him from his memories. He turned to see a young priestess standing behind him, she wore a unique version of the priestess robe. He smiles softly as his gaze landed on her blindfold, soaked in holy water.
"Amelia is been a long time huh." Cody spoke as he stood up, he went to shake her hand not she hugged him instead. He froze but ended up awkwardly patting her on the back.
"Oh, uh. . . Sorry I don't, um. You're a part of a majority of the futures I can see. I've been getting sentimental to you, I just realized that we don't really. . . Haaaa I just hugged you. That's so- Amelia, please calm down we have limited time." Amelia began to blush and blabber as she tried to escape her embarrassment, though that was cut off by a more mature voice. Cody frowned as he recognized Asmodeus's voice, and left him wondering if the young priestess and the demon were merging. "Haha, sorry Sir hero. Asmo is right we have something to discuss, the briefing will start soon. So tell me, have you made contact with any of the Fatebreakers in Aguris?" Amelia asked, her blindfold slipped slightly and a soft blue eye looked at him. Moments after being exposed to air it looked like a drop of ink splashed into the white and began to consume it. The blue began to bleed as her pupil elongated. A demon's eye.
"Ah, hmm I have been in contact with one of them. Skarlet, is almost definitely a Fatebreaker however. . . Any others seem to elude me at the moment." Cody spoke initially with excitement but it died down as he explained his frustration.
"Oh, that's a bit disappointing, I was hoping you would at least brush their paths before they left Aguris. There were a total of five residing in the city for a majority of the time you were there. Now there are only two- you should leave the city soon Cody, the major players have all left. You need to keep up with them that's the only way you'll manage to get home." She explained patiently, though Asmodeus interjected in the middle. Amelia glanced behind her causing to make sure the coast was still clear. "Asmo you cut me off!- apologies. -I can tell you're not sorry, oh Cody. . . let's get back to the discussion at hand" Amelia complained before realizing she was ignoring Cody. A bush crawled up her cheek.
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"Can you tell me who they are?" Cody asked hopefully.
"Sadly no, all Fatebreakers are invisible to my future sight until I come in contact with them. And so far your the only Fatebreaker I've made contact with." Amelia explained as she adjusted her blindfold, she winced slightly as the holy water forced her eye to turn back to normal.
"Oh, hmmm." he paused and thought for a moment, before asking a question, "Then how do you know where they are?"
"Cody just because something is invisible doesn't mean you can't see it. They displace their environment. I sense them through their absence." Amelia assured him, but she paused soon after and a soft smile settled on her face.
"Sir Cody, Miss Amelia. The meeting is starting, please follow me." A man in full gold and silver armor approached, Amelia nodded and turned to follow. Cody sighed and did the same, they passed the massive carving and stepped into a large white tent set up to the side. The guard leading them stepped to the side as Cody and Amelia pushed into the tent.
several other priests and scholars were also there, sitting around a rectangular table. Two Holy Knights stood at the back on either side of the seat of a seemingly important old man. There was one man who was out of place though, the only seated individual wearing armor. He had hair so grey it was practically white, and a great sword leaned against the table.
Cody took a seat, there was a map laid out on it. The Prophet took her seat as the priest towards the front addressed the group.
"You all have seen the giant ritual circle outside, yes?" He asked, the group who had been murmuring among themselves quieted down.
"Yes, it seems to be dark magic." A voice broke the silence hesitantly.
"I recognized at least one symbol of summoning." Another interjected
"Are you sure, I think it was luring." A scholar challenged the previous declaration.
"Yes yes the circle I believe we've all seen it." The Old Knight spoke tiredly
"High Bishop sir, why are we here, and why has no one started the work of removing the circles." One of the priests asked the man, he sounded slightly worried.
"Because the magic has already been completed, we are here to figure out what exactly it did." The High Bishop finally spoke.
"You mean, this terrifyingly huge ritual circle has already been used!?" an old scholar exclaimed, his hands shook from fear and worry. He was bald with trembling steele grey eyes.
"Yes, so if it's already been used, how do you expect us to decipher it?" A younger man cut in, he had black hair and black eyes, along with a pair of glasses. "Parts of it will undoubtedly be changed or burned away by the activation."
"Well, I assigned several teams of scribes to draw the circle on paper." The High Bishop explained as he brought out a sheet of paper. His old wrinkled hands seemed to struggle with the paper "You are all experts on different parts of the religion, I want to know what each and every one of these symbols mean." he explained, he was leaning on a cane with a golden cross adorning the front, Cody got a look at the magic circle. It had a large six headed snake in the center, a snake with no tail. The snake looked kind of like the wheel of a ship with a circle in the middle where the heads branched out from. In the center of that circle there was a symbol he recognized and never expected to see. The symbol for aries, a symbol from his home, something he'd seen before his reincarnation or summoning. There were a lot of runes and magic text intertwined along the lines making it up. Less a magic circle and more a magic hexagon, there were several other odd symbols in the circle and people started picking them out.
"This is the symbol of Loki, the chaos god." The old man spoke up, he was visible shaken. "What kind of magic would need to call on a god."
"This is a luring spell circle connected at the top here." The young man was thoughtful. Pushing his glasses up as he examined it.
"This is a timing spell circle, it would allow a spell to be set on a timer." A young woman priest spoke up, she had short blonde hair and green eyes.
"This is a camouflage seal, no wonder we didn't feel the changes." The old man spoke up, he was tracing a particular string of magic text.
"What about this here in the center, what's this symbol?" The High priest asked.
"Who knows, aren't these the phases of the moon?" The young man retorted before pointing to a ring of symbols around the outer edge.
"Yeah, and wait there's an ingrained star constellation using the multiple connected magic circles as a canvas." The young women responded
"Wait, isn't it a full moon tonight." The High Bishop spoke suddenly, fear crept into his voice.
"And this constellation will be directly overhead by morning." The young woman added to the fear in the room. "Those symbols are connected to the timer, look."
"Wouldn't that mean. . ." The old man began, before trailing off in thought
"This here in the center, is the symbol for Aries, in. . . another world." Cody spoke up pointing to the center. "I've seen it before."
"Did you say Aries boy?" The old man spoke seriously.
"Yes."
"That means this is a lure for-" The old man began but was cut off by the younger man.
"No that couldn't be, even a spell circle this large couldn't draw that beast here." The young priest retorted.
"Waaait. Excuse me for asking but, weren't we just gonna observe the status of the markings. When did they get completed into a magic ritual?" Cody asked suddenly, he'd been out of the loop for awhile and realized there were things he didn't know.
The high Bishop paused to look at Cody, "Ah, hero you did arrive a little late huh. I'll give a quick run down. The ritual circle was moving at a constant pace. We would check on it weekly. However it seemed to rapidly complete in-between now and the last time we checked. However no fluctuations were observed so it was done with stealth and careful planning." After finishing her speech to him she turned to the others to address the whole group.
"There's only one circle it really shouldn't have the power to draw Aries here, but we should prepare cause the caster may have used their own blood and if they're connected to the chaos church then they'd have the dark god's power running through their veins there are just too many unknown variables. Alert the king we shall retreat towards the Capitol. This could be a distraction so we must return to protect the Pope and the king.
"This. . . This is a disastrous event." The young woman spoke in disbelief, "It will be there tomorrow morning, the casualties. What kind of monster would do this forcing us to sacrifice a whole city for our duty." Skarlet and Maria! Cody finally realized what his bad feeling was.