Inside the temple, the prayers of many children varying from ages six to thirteen were heard echoing in the large hall; drowning out the horrors happening outside.
From a glance, there were close to a thousand children inside the hall. They were organized in rows and were required to kneel on mats with clasped hands, as they prayed facing a giant mural at the front of the temple.
On this mural, there was an indistinguishable figure with depictions of shining rays around them as they hovered over seven kneeling figures.
Those seven figures were the Seven Deities the Seven Great Churches worship.
As for who the indistinguishable figure these seven Deities were worshiping, in scriptures, it was said to be Keres, the Goddess of death and destruction.
“Why? Why can’t we leave, we’ve been here for hours!”
One of the younger children was heard whining in complaint. However, one of the prayer overseers who were walking around the temple hall came up to this young boy and shushed him.
This woman then urged the boy to continue praying in a harsh whisper. The boy having been scared by the woman’s reprimand obediently did as he was told.
Amon who wasn’t too far away from the row as this happened, had one of his eyes cracked open as he watched the scene unfold. A frown immediately appeared on his face.
His gaze then shifted to the large double doors exit of the church where guards were blocking it. Amon’s frown deepen and doubt began to rise in his heart.
Midday prayer has never gone on this long. At this point, they were practically forced to recite scriptures until their tongues felt numb and their feet tired from kneeling.
Something was wrong.
Not being able to shake off his doubts, Amon while still praying, secretly observed the prayer overseers walking around. When one of them walked down his row, he waited a moment before he turned to a chubby boy on his left and whispered.
“Farlon…”
The boy name Farlon paused his praying and turned to look at Amon. When he saw Amon’s serious expression he immediately knew what was up.
“Alma…”
Farlon nudge a cute-looking girl next to him and she too paused her praying to look over at Amon and Farlon.
Both Farlon and Alma were siblings as well as Amon’s closest friends. They are also the son and daughter of Vice Village Chief Fogon.
“What is it?”
Alma asked with her brows furrowed.
Not in the mood to bicker with her as he would usually do, Amon instead ask in a serious tone.
“Don’t you think it’s weird we’re being kept in here for so long? It’s like we’re being trapped.”
Farlon hearing this quipped.
“Boss, it isn’t like we’re being trapped, we are trapped.”
Amon instantly rolled his eyes.
“Nice observation dummy, that’s what I meant.”
Farlon’s mouth made an ‘O’ shape before he said again.
“Boss, I also observed something else when the door last opened, I glimpse several more guards standing outside.”
“Everyone suspects we’re being kept here for some reason, but the question is why we’re being trapped.”
Alma followed up after her brother.
“I don’t know, but we’re going to sneak out of here to see what’s going on.”
“How are we going to that? Be more realistic Amon, we won’t be able to get past those guards at the entrance. And didn’t my brother just say there were more guards outside?”
From Alma’s words, one could see that she was the voice of reason in the group. And she had to be because of Amon’s recklessness, along with Farlon’s overzealousness of Amon to go with everything he says.
Though once or twice would Farlon show a slight ray of intelligence when he wasn’t praising Amon. And this was one of those times.
“We can just create a big enough distraction. Everyone is probably tired of staying trapped here so we could use that to our advantage. With the number of kids here the distraction should be large enough to force even those guards outside to intervene. We could then sneak out during that time.”
Amon hearing this like the idea. He and Farlon then turned to look towards Alma. After a while, she reluctantly agreed to the plan.
After all, she too wanted to know why they were being trapped in here.
“Alright, since we all agree, pass on the message to have someone in the group create a distraction. We-”
“What are you three whispering about?”
Amon, Farlon, and Alma’s hearts all skipped a bit.
One of the prayer overseers had suddenly appeared behind them and glared at the three.
“N-Nothing.”
Amon nervously responded, hoping the man hadn’t overheard them.
The man turned to look at Amon with a stern expression in silence, making Amon and the other’s nervousness grow.
However, the man suddenly broke his silence as he said.
“Don’t let me catch any of you speaking again. It’s unforgivable to not offer prayers to Lord Ga-On when you are in his presence.”
“We’re sorry.”
Amon said, apologizing for the three of them respectfully. However, he was beginning to realize these people were too excessive with their devotion.
Amon was only seven, but he was an observant child and was likely one the most promising upcoming youngster in the village. He hadn’t noticed it at first when he was listening to how these people from the Church speak about their God in a normal setting, but now that he was hearing it in this situation, he realize these people were way too zealous.
After Amon apologized, the overseer was heard huffing before he turned away.
Amon and the others went back to praying, but not before Amon nodded his head towards Alma.
Among their group, they had hand signs to communicate with each other. And though it wasn’t that complex, with them being only able to communicate with a few words, it was still useful in situations like this.
On a side note, the idea to learn secret hand signs was actually proposed by Farlon.
Alma nudge the boy next to her and used those hand signs.
“Someone in the group needs to create a distraction.”
The boy easily read Alma’s hand signs, but after looking around the large hall, a hesitant look appeared on his face and he opted to pass on the message to the next person.
The next youth in the row he passed the order onto hesitated to go through with it as well.
‘It’s probably an order from Boss, but he only said someone from the group should do it, that doesn’t mean it has to be me.’
Like this, the order was constantly passed on to the next child in the row.
The number of people in the group was quite large, as Amon was quite an influential figure among the small children in the village. So this order of his went all the way down the row of children until it reach one boy, who had the same hesitant reaction as everyone before him.
However, when he turned to his left to pass on the message to someone else, he only came face-to-face with the temple’s wall.
‘Ah, crap, why me?!’
The boy was the last one in the row.
He looked around the temple hall at the scary prayer overseers and wonder how was he supposed to create a distraction.
‘Shit.’
The boy couldn’t help but curse internally while a nervous expression appeared on his face.
Meanwhile, the boy who passed on the message to him showed a smug look while stifling back a laugh. He was obviously gloating at the nervous boy’s misfortunes.
Upon seeing his companion gloating, the nervous boy gave him a death stare. However, a thought suddenly popped into the nervous boy’s head, and without deliberating on the thought for too long he just went for it.
SMACK!
A loud smacking sound echoed out as the once nervous boy slapped the gloating youth upside the head; one might say it was done with too much eagerness.
“Owie.”
The boy who was slapped felt his mind buzz while a numbing pain washed over his head. But he soon looked up and angrily glare at the nervous boy who was now grinning.
Seeing his grin, the boy couldn’t help but yell out loud.
“Why did you hit me?!”
The smack had drawn a few people’s attention, but this shout from the boy was heard by almost everyone in the hall. Most of the children stopped praying and looked over.
As for the prayer overseers, a few of them was already making their way over. 𝚘𝚟𝚕．ｔ
The boy who did the hitting held up his hands as he said.
“Boss said to create a distraction.”
Hearing this the boy who was hit gritted his teeth and forced out.
“He said to create a distraction, not to hit ME! Bastard!!”
With that final shout, the boy lept towards the youth that hit him. The two then began to tussle on the ground, even rolling into other children forcing them to get up.
“In the presence of the Lord? How preposterous!”
One of the prayer overseers who was a gray-haired old man, roared out as he rushed over to grab the two boys.