“Now lastly..we must hear a recollection of this beings sinful life..by one who knew him during it..Sir Kenrik please step up..”

The old Archbishop beckoned Kenrik forward.

“Tell us of the criminal and murderous life he led. Tell us what you thought of him in the past..”

Walking up, his back rigid, Kenrik looked at the bishop, his eyes shifting to Hikaru, who was tied up and on his knees.

“This man was…”

Kenrik took a deep breath.

“He was a man of murderous intentions. Obsessed with improving his sword skills..killing any living thing in his path.”

The other priests nodded seriously, contempt directed at Hikaru.

Kenrik continued.

“His life consisted of naught but slaughter. His skills and power..could likely end an entire army or two at their peak..he is that frightening of a man. In fact..he frightened me so much that i did not dare disobey him even once.”

Kenrik received pitying gazes.

“...However. He was also a man i respected fully and completely. Never once did he act out of malicious intent. His actions were done purely to improve his abilities to control his immense power. In fact other than his inhuman characteristics..he had one trait. His complete and utter fascination in humans. Whenever we visited a place of rest, he would always observe every meaningless little action someone did with the interest of a child. I have never seen him needlessly harm a human, even in self defence he would easily escape. He was my mentor, and my rolemodel. He was someone i aspired to be like. Pure of intention and yet resolute in his goals.”

Kenrik said all of this while looking at the ceiling, avoiding looking at Hikaru.

“...I see..” The Archbishop brushed his beard thoughtfully. “...Do you still harbour such thoughts?” The Archbishop glanced dangerously at Kenrik.

In response to the glance, Kenrik turned his full attention towards the Bishop, his eyes looking into the suspicious eyes of the Archbishop.

“You commanded me to tell you of the thoughts of the me of the past, and that is what i did.”

“....I see.” The Archbishop nodded.

His suspicions weakened yet not completely gone.

“For the crimes of spreading chaos and madness for reasons not understood by mankind..i..Archbishop of the church of Frigga, with my direct power as the foremost follower of Frigga..upon my faith..i sentence this being to be robbed of its life by the holy item..thus cleansing its soul and obliterating its evil from existence..”

The bearded Archbishop ended his speech with that, without even glancing at Hikaru, he commanded the other priests to bring Hikaru to his place of execution.

The priests surrounded Hikaru and pulled him up from his kneeling position. Dragging him along the ground to the end of the room, where a most peculiar item rested on the wall.

A tool akin to an axe, with a blade meant for sawing instead of chopping.

It’s size made both of those almost impossible, since it was not possible for a normal human to lift an axe of that size. An axe larger than the size of two men was not something to be used for casual chopping or sawing.

And it wasn’t meant to be.

That item was the godly relic of the goddess Frigga. The one tool that could bring love to all her followers and bring them to their destiny.

She was a very double faced god.

While she did spread the message of true love and following your destiny. She was also one to take drastic measures.

Measures such as death. It was no coincidence that the priests following her assumed her will concerning Hikaru to be his death.

For her most secret teachings, known only to the highest of priests, was that everyone’s true destiny was their inevitable death, and the suffering one experiences during one's life..it was only a twisted form of love, of longing for this death that would reunite them with their goddess.

This tool..was just an extension of that twisted teaching. Meant to make the weapon as inneffective as possible. Slowing down the death of the victim as much as possible..making them feel immense torturous pain and make them wish for their own death. Thus they would feel her love, and accept their destiny. It was a tool that reflected her desires perfectly.

“You are one the few people able to lift it..so if you would please..”

The Archbishop smiled at Kenrik, who did not dare move.

“Have you forgotten your duties..the duties you have trained so hard to acquire..?”

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“No i..of course.”

Looking down, Kenrik walked over to the axe, slowly lifting it with a single arm, in a near effortless motion.

“Seems you’ve not neglected your training..i’m glad.”

Looking slightly satisfied, Hikaru looked at Kenrik. Simply glad to see his old friend having grown so much.

“What are you acting so glad about..if i hadn’t trained..you wouldn’t have to die like this..”

Muttering, Kenrik cursed his own self. He was currently the only one able of lifting and using the godly relic, thus if he wasn’t able to use it. Hikaru would have likely been killed in a far more painless way. His suffering will be completely his fault.

Hikaru could see the pain on Kenrik’s face.

“Don’t worry. Your strength and effort is not something to regret. Be proud of it, and do your worst.”

“...You’ve always been so carefree, damnit!”

Lifting the giant axe above his head, Kenrik swung it down with all his force.

--

“I really don’t have time for this!”

Yuri muttered, out of breath.

Although she was not doing anything suspicious.

A random girl dashing through the city while knocking everyone out of her way, definitely got one of the guards attention.

But Yuri had no time to waste on a single guard, and soon one guard turned into two, and before she knew it, there was an entire battalion of guards running after her.

They had great difficulty capturing a single person who could freely move through the crowds.

“Now i don’t even get a chance to ask anyone where Hikaru is held..! If i stop i’m done for!”

She was now forced to keep running, out of the urgency of her situation and the urgency of Hikaru’s situation.

“Where could they be keeping him!?”

Rounding another corner, she slid through the legs of a passerby, causing a guard to collide with him.

“So god damn many guards..how did it even get like this!”

She bit her lip.

“Hm..? There’s so many guards running after me right now..surely the security everywhere else in this church city is lower..which would mean..!”

Yuri increased her speed.

“The only place which still has a sizeable security force..should be where Hikaru is!”

There was definitely a place like that.

She remembers running past it. Wondering why so many guards were deposited to guard an old run down church.

Which was even stranger considering they were all already inside a giant church.

Taking a shortcut through a narrow alley, she managed to significantly slow down her pursuers.

A guard showed up at the end of the alley, blocking her exit.

Not deterred by his presence. Yuri jumped up, holding onto the sides of the very narrow alley and climbing her way to the rooftops of the buildings surrounding her.

She could see her destination, the small church up ahead. Guards constantly patrolling around it.

Yuri had no time for sneaky approaches, so she decided to rush in there and test the full capabilities of her luck.

She ran, ran as fast she could, ran so quickly her feet began to bleed and her muscles ached. Her muscles warning her that once she did stop, they would not have the power to function anymore.

Guards from behind her, guards from in front of her, and guards coming at her from her sides.

She was surrounded. That was to be expected. She had jumped right into the mouth of the enemy.

She expected this. Foresight alone did not mean she could see a way out of this situation.

She had no weapons.

She had no magic.

She had no powerful comrade to aid her.

She had no plans.

She didn’t even have the element of surprise.

She had absolutely nothing. Nothing but the accursed body granted to her by a foolish goddess.

It was the only thing she had.

She didn’t have the luxury of pride or humility.

For Hikaru, she was willing to throw those things away.

She only had one chance, which would cost her the very pride that kept her going as a thief.

Swallowing heavily.

Yuri prepared herself.

The guards were now barely a meter away from her.

Some of them were reaching out to grab her, others were swinging their weapons.

She had but a few moments left to act.

She had decided that she would find out the true meaning of her new feelings, for that she needed to get Hikaru. For Hikaru, she was willing to do this.

She crouched down, her hands on her sides, tightly grabbing onto herself.

She was going to rescue him.

Pulling her hands up, she sharply stood up.

She was going to rescue him.

Her hands tightly gripped onto something.

She was going to rescue him.

Her hands waved that item in the air.

She was going to rescue him…

“So why is that i have to show off my body like this, GOD DAMNIT!?”

The item she held in her hands was her blouse, without it wrapped on her chest, her upper body was now in full view for the guards surrounding her to see.

All of them froze in the middle of their movement. Even those that had swung their heavy weapons seemed to freeze in air, their momentum completely gone.

“Chance..!”

Using the precious moment of confusion she was given, Yuri jumped onto one of the guards and quickly lunged onto the other side of the sea of guards, landing right in front of the gates to the small church.

“...Hikaru better fucking appreciate this..!”

Her entire body redder than the colour of a ripe apple, she put her blouse back on while running inside.

The guards outside the small church slowly lowered their weapons.

“...we should go after her.”

Another one nodded.

“Yeah this is a restricted area..”

“O-oh right yeah because of that, of course..let’s go.”

The guards moved with terrifying determination unlike before.

Yuri had managed to escape her unfavourable position, but the cost for that..was both her pride and something far worse, which now glittered in the eyes of the guards.

“Where is he..? Where is he..!?”

She was stuck running in circles, inside the small church.

Until eventually, she found a large entrance into what seemed like a main area of the church.

Swinging the heavy doors open, she arrived just in time.

She had finally found Hikaru, bound and sitting on the ground.

She had finally found him, found him and..a giant axe right above his head.

“NO!”

The sound of the sawed edges of the axe embedding themselves into something soft filled the hall.