As Alexander was having a fun night devouring the two thirsty minxes, their lovely voices turning the room into a carnival of carnal opera, at the same time, another more sanguinary opera was taking place in the center of the city, sanctioned by its very ruler.
Camius and his small group made joined in front of the temple at around midnight, their surroundings illuminated only by some distant fires and the few, small torches they carried.
The temple of Ramuh, being in the capital city of a very religious, conservative province was naturally very grand, arguably exceeding even the pasha’s own residence in terms of cost per square feet, decorated ornately in frescos, murals, and tapestries, and made with the best building material available such as granite, onyx, and oak.
It was a huge two-story building, around ten thousand square feet per floor, and inhabited by exactly sixty-nine priests and priestesses.
(Note Author- Yea, I’m that childish.)
Previously it used to hold close to a hundred and fifty clergymen and women, but recently, some were transferred to other temples around the province, a handful drew disillusioned by the religion and secretly left, while most died, either from malnutrition, disease or even by participating in the war, with the vow to ‘Bring justice to the infidels’, referring both to the Tibisians and to Ptolomy and Alexander.
Previously, during the rule of Pasha Muazz, the temple would be usually guarded by some men, though even then it was seen as a waste because no one even dared imagine that there would be a fool foolish enough to anger the gods in such a way.
But with Alexander’s ascension to power, these men naturally were relocated to more productive ventures, leaving the temple as defenseless as an infant baby.
But this drew negligible backlash, at least openly, mostly because the temple was in no position to haggle with Alexander over anything, as evidenced by the fact that Alexander had not even received a single priest from the temple personally, instead letting Theocles deal with them, and also because no in the city seriously thought the temple was ever in the danger.
Even when the literal biggest temple robber in the world was the leader of the city, this thought did not enter the heads of these dogmatic buffoons.
And even if it did, other than abandoning the temple, they would have little recourse anyway.
Alexander had a hundred ways to make the destruction of the temple look like an accident, one of which he was using right now.
‘Right, you all know what to do. Let’s go,’ Camius wrapped in full black camo, had already briefed these men on what to do and so signaled the start of the special military mission.
These men naturally were all from Thesos, had participated in the sacking of the grand temple of Ramuh in Adhania, and were all believers of Gaia.
And so, they held zero reservations about killing priests and burning temples.
Hearing their commander’s order, and knowing from whom these orders originally came, these blindly loyal fifty or so cloaked men rapidly spilt into groups of eight to ten, and then drawing their swords from their sheaths and equipping their shields from their backs, directly invaded the temple.
The temple’s front doors were naturally always kept open to allow any believer to commune with Ramuh any time of the day or night, and so the men could simply barge into the temple with no problem.
The temple was dim and dark at this time of the night, with less than five clergymen awake and active in the main hallway, mostly praying or doing other miscellaneous chores, when suddenly some black-cloaked men wielding swords invaded their sanctions, causing one of them to cry out in terror, “Wh..who are you peo..argh,” ．𝙘𝙤𝙢
A simple stab to the stomach and a second strike through the skull was enough to shut up the priest.
The others were similarly cut to ribbons even before they would give a good cry for help, making some die confused at what had actually happened, the dim lighting by the candle providing the ideal environment for these assassins to hide under.
These men and women were not warriors and even if they were, caught off guard, they would have never had a chance anyway.
Once the awoke priests were sent to meet with death and reaffirm whether Ramuh really existed or not, the men rushed upstairs, where the bedrooms were.
Because the lighting was inadequate, some of the men lit their torches, which was just a rag soaked in animal fat tied to a piece of wood, and led the way, allowing all the men to see their targets.
The second floor started as a huge communal bedroom space and most of the assassins started their massacre here, pouncing on the sleeping, defenseless priests and priestesses like a pack of hyenas, killing many in their sleep with a simple slit of the throat, and letting them pass on to the next world peacefully and painlessly, no huss and fuss involved.
These were arguably the lucky ones, as some light sleepers were woken up by the heavy steps, bright light, or the muffled screams and grunts, only to have their last memories be of a masked, hooded, cloaked assassin, staring menacingly at them before slicing their throat open.
“Arghh..”
“Ohhhh..”
“Coughhhhhh”
The dull sound of men and women dying by the droves, unable to even scream properly because their throats had been severed, reverberated across the large room.
There was even no possibility of escape for these men and women.
This was because Alexander had given Camius the idea during the day to send a fake convert into the temple to scout all its entrances and exits, and Camius had already posted men to guard these entrances, with the orders to kill anyone attempting to escape.
If it was daylight and the priests were on the lower floor, maybe some quick ones could have escaped because Camius had the time to secure all the passageways, but the communal bedroom really had only two exits, one was down the stairs from which the assassins came from and thus crawling with them, and the other was a passage to their right, which connected the private chambers of the higher bishops and cardinals through a corridor, a corridor infested with soldiers led by Camius himself.
All the temple windows were also tightly locked to keep out the cold winter air so, unlocking the wooden windows and then, because the temple’s first floor was naturally much higher than the regular house, jumping almost forty feet down to escape was also impossible.
Thus the soldiers slaughtered the men and women like pigs, showing not a hint of mercy, many of their hearts burning with pitch-black hatred as they recalled the memory of their comrades, their fathers, their brothers, and their kin being sacrificed under the direct supervision of their boss Manuk, just two months ago.
That wound was still fresh and stung when touched in the hearts of many of the men.
While the communal room was being cleansed, Camius and his group were busy busting down the doors of the private bedrooms past the corridor with a few well-placed kicks, barging into the room, and then swiftly offing the groggy owner of the room.
There were only a few occupied bedrooms and with the team split into multiple groups, this macabre act took less than five minutes.
In fact, the entire operation took less than fifteen minutes, as the men simply barged in, killed whoever they found in sight downstairs, ran upstairs, killed the sleeping and half-sleeping man by splitting up, and then got out.
Fast and clean.
They took no valuables, hid no bodies, and set fire to nothing
And once outside, the men dispersed along preplanned routes, and just like they were gone like the wind, as elusive as they came.
Camius and his men were fully successful in their mission, with not a single priest or priestess unaccounted for, though even if they did survive, Alexander had plans to try them as traitors using the lame excuse ‘Since so many died, the only way you could have survived was if the enemy lets you. Hence you are saboteurs.’
And since Alexander was the judge, jury, and executioner in this town, who could have stooped him?
No one was left none the wiser to Camus’s deed for the whole night and it would be only after the crack of dawn, once some of the more devout followers would start coming to the temple that this tragedy would be known to the world.
“Guards, guards, the temple, the temple.” One old woman, who was a regular patron of the temple, ran to one of the city guards, leading a group of similar distraught-looking crowd.
And then in broken sobs and pants, finally managed to report to him, “De..dead, dead. The priests and prestresses in the temple are all dead! All dead,” she howled in ululation.
And thus began another eventful day for Alexander.