Pov Archbishop of the Order of the Golden Light:
Headquarters of the Church of Light.
I’m in my office this morning looking at the reports about the battle against the Heretic God we’re fighting, it makes me sick to see the catastrophic results of that battle.
knock knock
“Archbishop Aurélio, I brought Inquisitor Andreia as requested.”
“Thanks, ask no one to interrupt us.” (I)
“As you wish, Lord Archbishop.”
As one of the church servants leaves, a black-skinned woman with golden tattoos enters my office, she spreads her white and gold wings as she kneels.
“Who shall I hunt this time my lord?” (Andreia)
“No one, I called her for two reasons.” (I)
“The first is that I want an explanation about the battle against the Heretic God of Wrath.” (I)
Andreia has been the leader of the Inquisitors for centuries, her entire family has served the Church for millennia, she is the strongest and most trusted Inquisitor we have, and her loyalty and faith is a symbol that even I respect.
“This Heretic God had managed to gather a lot of strength while staying hidden indefinitely.” (Andreia)
“The heretics who served him did as we had hoped, after years of destroying them, finally they went to their last resort to bring their God into the world.” (Andreia)
“They used a city of 270 million people and an unknown artifact for their God to incarnate in their heretic priest.” (Andreia)
“Did you do as I ordered?” (I)
“Yes, we stopped and destroyed the Taboo hunters who tried to kill the enemy heretics, their souls were used as an offering to the great God Baldr.” (Andreia)
“Those unwilling things always appear in the most inconvenient of situations, they can’t even fight divine beings, the gods create such things are fools.” (I)
“If they had any trace of intelligence, they would realize that the important thing was to stop the Heretic God and not the unholy ceremony they performed.” (I)
For fools who can’t see the big picture, some collateral damage can be overlooked for the sake of defeating one of these Heretic Gods.
“How did the fake Hero fare?” (I)
“He fought much better than expected sir, in the end, we used him to finish the Heretic God’s sealing ritual.” (Andreia)
“If everything went so well, then explain to me how we lost half our army and why did we get an oracle saying that the false hero’s soul was taken?” (I)
“The Heretic God of Wrath summoned Berserk Dragons the moment he took his Priest’s body, I decided that half the army would be a bearable price to pay to eliminate this greater threat, that was the Heretic God’s weakest moment and our only opportunity to defeat him without resorting to our true Hero.” (Andreia)
Sigh
“Half the army is a great loss for us, it will take decades to recover our strength, but you are not completely wrong, if you had acted differently maybe you would all have died.” (I)
“Have you noticed anything else strange?” (I)
“When the Heretic God had his body destroyed and we were in the process of sealing him, the unknown artifact that the Heretic Priests used exploded in a multicolored light and destroyed some of our Priests almost interrupting the Heretic God’s sealing ritual, it was also at that moment that the false hero’s body was destroyed.” (Andreia)
“…” (I)
“(It must have been at this time that his soul was taken, that artifact must have belonged to another God perhaps, but which one?)” (I)
“Alright, our victory was always something we were sure of, but I don’t like the losses we’ve had, because of that we’ll have to wake the real hero from his slumber.” (I)
“But that will be resolved later at a Church meeting.” (I)
The truth is that there is nothing to decide, this is our only option at the moment, we are too weak and with many enemies in sight, it’s probably just a matter of time before servants of the Evil Gods or the Demon Gods start causing us problems, we need to show that we are still strong.
I look at Andreia who is still kneeling with one on her knees waiting, I pick up a storage crystal and toss the small cube for her to pick up.
“This is information from a Heretic who was found on the Morror Continent, it has been confirmed by an Oracle that the traitor Saint Vanessa is with him, it looks like he might be a Hero or Champion of the Blood Goddess.” (I)
“Our forces on that continent tried to hunt him down, but it seems he’s good at hiding, they had a confrontation with him at sea while trying to leave the Morror Continent.” (I)
“But even though they were in greater numbers they were defeated even before the battle started, according to the reports the Heretic’s Aura was strange and very powerful.” (I)
“We also know that he is not alone, it seems that he leads an unknown organization with individuals of various races and monsters, his powers are mostly unknown, the few that we are aware of are described in this information.” (I)
“I will personally finish him off my Lord.” (Andreia)
“You can’t, he must be on the Dark Continent right now, his power was estimated to be around the Catastrophe Grade, that’s the power limit of these two continents, if you go you would draw attention from our enemies and could even take you to death as energy level in these areas is negligible.” (I)
“What do you wish me to do, my Lord?” (Andreia)
“Send your sister, I know she has studied about the traitor Saint and about other Gods like the Witch of Carnage, this might be useful for this quest, her power level is also at Catastrophe Grade and her reports show the same potential as you demonstrated in your youth.” (I)
“I want her to lead a team of people of the same power level as her, that should be enough to deal with this Heretic.” (I)
“But my Lord, my sister has not yet passed her Oath of Light Ceremony.” (Andreia) ．
“That matter can wait until she returns, when she succeeds in this quest her achievements can cause her to receive a mighty Blessing from the great God Baldr during her Oath Ceremony of Light.” (I)
“This is a great opportunity for her.” (I)
“I thank you for this opportunity, my Lord.” (Andreia)
“What would the name of the Heretic to be hunted be?” (Andreia)
“His name is Zenos, he is a Vampire Patriarch with a youthful appearance, his orders will be to kill him and anyone on this Heretic’s side, his and the Holy Traitor’s bodies must be brought to us to expose their sins to the world.” (I)
“You can go now.” (I)
“I bid you farewell, my Lord.” (Andreia)
I close my eyes as I think about this quest, I am sending one of our most promising Inquisitors, she has an understanding about the Carnage Witch, about the Saint Traitor and has great talent in combat, but I didn’t tell all the information that the oracle revealed to us.
“(We can’t leave the information that a new child of Selene was born, that damn Goddess has many supporters everywhere, I will just announce him as a Heretic to prevent others from interfering.)” (I)