While we explore the city, I provide Maria with a cloak and hood so nobody recognizes she isn’t human. "There’s no need for that," Winter says. "I can just kill anyone who tries anything."
"True, but I’d prefer if we kept on the down low." As we walk through the bustling street and Jack, Maria, and Ican check the status of everyone we pass, a large group of people dressed in white robes walk by us. One of them, who I assume is their superior, wears red robes. As our groups pass each other, the man wearing red glances over at me, then double takes and stares at me. He squints his eyes, and suddenly the whole group changes trajectory to catch up with us.
"Excuse me!" He shouts to us. We stop moving and I slowly turn to face him. When I turn to him, I see him whisper something to one of his comrades. "So, you’re the one who killed the Voice of God?" His accusation draws the attention of everyone around us in the streets. Great.
"You don’t want to do this. Trust me. If I was able to defeat your god, what do you think you’ll be able to do?" My logical assessment seems to have done at least some good. The group now looks much more apprehensive to approach me than before.
"Tch! You took everything from me! I used to be a High Priest! But our god is dead now!" The man in red shouts. "Just before he went to battle you, the Voice of God told me if he doesn’t come back to look for a man with your exact description! Your black mask doesn’t trick me, devil! Priests! Prepare the spell!"
They all hold up their hands and an enormous amount of vis gathers around them. I signal for my group to get out of the area before something catastrophic happens and they oblige. I flare my flux towards them, and the vis around them disperses. "Hah. Did you think that spell was the only thing we had prepared?" The man in red says.
I look around me, and before I know it I am surrounded on all sides by almost 100 soldiers. I guess the Church has significant political power. They all draw their weapons. This time, however, instead of asking me to surrender, they all charge in to attack immediately.
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In response, I use my fire spell focus to scorch the front line of them, leaving nothing but ash. The ones behind them, however, manage to break through and land hits on me. My runic shielding easily blocks the damage, and I draw my primal cutter and kill about 50 in hand to hand combat. As I fight, I see the priests have resumed their spell, but I don’t have time to dispel it right now. As I finish the last of the soldiers off, they complete their spell and an arrow of spectral light materializes before the head priest.
"Haha! You fool! With this many high-leveled priests casting the spell at once, our magical power surpasses that of even gods by threefold!" Uh oh. The arrow of light fires at me so fast I have no time to react. Its concentration of vis is so great it pushes through my flux and pierces my already strained runic shielding, striking me square in the head. I scream in pain as it comes out the back of my head, leaving a massive hole in it. Hold on. My mask! Oh fuck! I feel for my mask, which has cracked in half from the impact. My head is of no concern to me, as my taint physiology will easily close the hole over time. But my mask…
My broken mask falls off my face, and I feel the warp seep deep into my soul. I scream in agony and the air around me begins to turn into fog. "What? What magic is this?" Yells the head priest in fright. As the fog worsens, I make an effort to fix the mask on the ground through my mental anguish in any way I can. I channel vis through my gauntlet to cast a mending spell, but it will take a few minutes to fix the mask.
As I fix it, the fog gets so thick that I can’t even see the priests anymore. I do, however, start hearing their screams as they begin getting ripped apart by some unseen entity. Serves them right. Seconds away from the mask being fixed, I see the figure responsible for attacking the priests emerge from the fog in front of me. It is a transparent black entity with disproportionately long legs and arms, and a gaping mouth full of huge teeth on its chest. It slowly walks over to me, presumably getting ready to attack me. Before it can, however, the mask finished mending and I plant it on my face. The entity retreats into the fog as it dissipates.
As I stand up, I see the entity’s handiwork. All of the priests have been torn to ribbons. Scared civilians stand up from their cowering positions after the fog vanishes and scream at the sight. I sigh and walk in the direction my companions went. I find them waiting around a corner.
"What the hell happened?" Jack asks.
"Some sort of thick fog covered the whole city!" Julius adds.
"Don’t worry about it. I don’t think it will happen again. Although I will have to add this to my notes."