Stepping out from the group of people, an elderly came forward to speak on behalf of the settlement. Introducing himself as the mayor, he vigorously shook my hand as he expressed his gratitude for removing the sword. Telling him it wasn’t that big of a deal and not to worry about it, the old man wouldn’t let it go.
“You have brought life back to our village, to us this is a very big deal.”, he insisted, “If you hadn’t come along today, we would have left tomorrow morning to seek shelter in other villages. There was no guarantee that they would have accepted us, but now we don’t need to worry about that!”
“I am glad you are optimistic, but what about your food stores?”, I reminded him, “Surely you are running low at this point, and with no money to purchase any you will starve here.”
“We…we will figure out a way. Now that the sword is gone plants should start growing normally again allowing us to forage for food.”, he assured me as his stomach growled loudly.
Not wanting a repeat of my early days in Alestar, I pulled out six months of rations to feed the villagers. Staring at the palettes of food, the villagers looked at it with worried expressions. Telling me they had nothing to offer for the supplies, I assured them there was another way to repay me. Pretending to have come from a faraway land, the repayment I desired was information that the mayor was more than willing to provide.
“So what’s this business about Apostles?”, I inquired, “Forgive my ignorance, but I haven’t heard of them before.”
“You must have been living far out in the wilderness not to know about them, they are chosen members of the Living God Church. As the Living God’s personal enforcers, each one cares a small fragment of his power and will carry out his will without hesitation.”, the mayor said with a terrified expression, “They are heartless…it is like all the kindness and humanity they once had is gone. I personally watched them raze a small village to the ground because a child mispronounced the Living God’s name. All of them were burned alive in their homes while the Apostle stood there praising their God.”
‘It’s as I thought, he’s been using his powers to brainwash people into his mindless slaves. The Apostles are probably strong fighters that have been manipulated into following him.’, I thought with a disgusted look, ‘Who the hell would willingly follow that fucker, he’s a coward and a piece of shit.’
Wondering what happen to the people after I killed him, the biggest concern was whether they’d remember what they did. If they were truly evil people, I’d kill them and save everyone a lot of time. My concern was that they were likely good people that had fallen into his clutches and were being forced to do these horrible things. If they were aware of what was going on, but couldn’t control themselves…oh boy they will need therapy.
“So the Hero that almost died touching the sword, who were they?”, I questioned.
“Ah, that would be Lady Glass.”, he replied, “She came with the other Heroes about a month ago, they risked a lot to bring us supplies and attempted to remove the sword while they were here. They tried to persuade us to leave with them, but we could not travel several thousand miles with them across enemy territory. We would have only slowed them down and potentially got them spotted by the enemy. The Living God has Holy Knights ”
Understanding that, I was surprised they even suggested it given the people’s current conditions. Insisting that they do more than just give us common information I opted to ask for a map as I wasn’t familiar with this world. Telling me he had a spare he could provide me, he asked me to wait a moment so he could go get it. As I watched him disappear into town, I returned to the carriage to update everyone.
Knocking on the window to get someone’s attention, Clover opened it up a few moments later asking if something was wrong. Telling her that something was off about this world, I said there were too many differences from what I knew which made me uncomfortable. Telling her about the sword that was embedded in the ground and the Holy Knights, she asked me what was off about that.
“Are you concerned that you aren’t going to be strong enough to take them?”, she teased me.
“Of course not, you should know better than that.”, I chuckled with a grin, “I think I know who the person was that cursed the village, a Holy Knight named Gilthunder. The problem is he shouldn’t be in this world, he’s from a completely different world full of Demons, Gods, and other races. If he is here, that means someone brought him and given who he is working for…”
“You think the God of Deceit somehow got into another world and messed with that one too, got it.”, she remarked, “Couldn’t he have been brought by Ciri, and something happened to them both?”
“That’s a possibility too I suppose, we will need to meet up with the Heroes here and see what information we can get out of them. Since Eri, Kota, and Fuyumi are on break see if they want to take a family road trip together. It’s been a while since we have gone on a journey together, could be a lot of fun!”, I suggested.
Telling me she’d go and ask everyone else, she personally was more than up for the trip. Even though modern amenities were nice, there was something special about being out on the road together. Seeing different places, meeting new people, and making memories were all part of the fun which I hoped to share with our children. Leaving it to her, I stood next to the carriage waiting for the mayor’s return.
“Sorry about the wait!”, he panted as he returned ten minutes later, “It took some time, but I found the map you requested.”
Handing me the parchment, I unfolded the map and took a look at it. From my very vague recollection everything appeared to be right so at least I knew this was Glass’ world. Thanking him for the map, I wished him the best of luck before getting back into the coachman’s seat and guided the Filoials out of the settlement.
—3rd Person POV—
Running through the temple in a hurry, Vermillion had urgent news for her father. Having sensed the destruction of one of her handmade Divine Weapons, she knew only one person capable of destroying it which was bad news for them. Pushing servants and Holy Knights out of her way she quickly reached her father’s private chambers. Under normal circumstances, she’d have to knock on the door first but now wasn’t the time for that.
“Father!!”, she shouted as she kicked the doors in, “He’s in this world now, Cole is here! One of my Divine Weapons was-”
“I know…”, he replied looking out his window, “I sensed him when he used his Destruction Power on it, he’s grown much more dangerous. That blasted God of Reincarnation created a monster, and now we are being hunted by him! Have you had any luck locating allies using the powers I gave you?”
“My apologies Father, I haven’t found any stronger fighters than what we have in our ranks already.”, she said hanging her head low, “I can continue to search for allies if you wish.”
“No, don’t bother now.”, the God of Deceit complained, “He’s already here so it’s too late to prepare further, we will work with what we have at hand. Summon all the Holy Knights and Apostles in the capital, they need a reminder of what failure means moving forward…”
Turning around to get dressed in his formal clothing, the women that had been attending to him earlier shrieked and scurried away in fright. The moment the deity had sensed Cole’s presence, he flew into a rage and began taking his anger out on the women Vermillion had caught for him. Had Vermillion shown up minutes earlier, she’d have heard their pleas for mercy and help.
“Bring me fresh women this evening, I bore of these broken toys.”, the God of Deceit told his daughter.
“Of course.”, she said hiding her disgust for his hobbies well, “Apostles, see to it that these women are disposed of properly.”
Once their God had walked into his private bathroom, several Apostles marched in and seized them. Realizing they were about to be killed, the women pleaded with Vermillion and the Apostles to just let them go. Swearing not to tell a soul about what had occurred, their pleas fell on deaf ears. Dragging them out of the room and past a group of two Holy Knights, one woman grabbed onto one of their legs for dear life.
“Sir Knight, please help us!!”, the woman cried as her grip started to fail, “I don’t want to die!! We want to return to our families, our husbands and children are waiting for us!!”
“They aren’t waiting for you, they are already dead.”, the Holy Knight replied with a cold look, “Did you really think witnesses would be left alive? The moment you entered this temple your families were branded heretics, and burned alive at the stake.”
Watching her facial expression shatter, the women started crying as they were dragged to the Executioner. Holding back their emotions, both Knights stood there listening to their wailing. No longer crying about their own lives, they cried for the loss of their families whom they had been assured were safe and sound. Waiting for their cries to disappear, one of the men couldn’t hold it in any longer.
“God Damnit all!”, he cried hitting the wall with his fist, “If only we could do something!!”
“Be silent Griamore!”, his friend scolded him in a low tone, “You know what will happen if someone hears you!”
“Gilthunder, I can’t keep this up forever!”, Griamore whimpered, “That was the twelve group of women this month…how many people are we going to damn before we do something!?”
“The Sins, Goddesses, and Demons couldn’t stop Vermillion or the Living God…what do you expect us to do?”, Gilthunder remarked holding his frustration back, “All we can do is follow orders, or else we-”
Before he could finish his sentence, Vermillion walked out of her father’s chambers. Realizing that she may have overheard their conversation, the two men stood at attention and feared the worst. Turning to look at them with an uncaring stare, she gave the men an order.
“Both of you round up the Apostles and Holy Knights immediately, the Living God has a Decree!”, she snarled before storming off.
Once she was out of sight, the two men let out a sigh of relief. Both thought for sure she was going to kill them, but they somehow escaped her ear. Doing as they were ordered, both men quickly gathered everyone in the Great Hall for the Decree. Kneeling down as the Living God entered the room, Gilthunder could sense that something was amiss. For the first time since meeting him, he noticed a brief moment of fear on his face.
‘Did something happen?’, he wondered while keeping his head down.
Quickly giving Apostles marching orders to begin fortifying the city, he dismissed them in a hurry so he could move on. Once they were gone, his attention turned to them and the knights could feel his rage bearing down on their backs. Thinking that maybe they had been caught talking in the hallway, Gilthunder and Griamore readied themselves for what was about to happen.
“It’s been four months now since we took your people in, and saved you from a slow, cold death in the White Frost. Now is the time that you can start to show me how truly grateful you are for our generous gesture.”, he told them Vermillion brought a woman into the room, “An enemy of mine has shown himself on this world, and he intends to take my head as well as my daughters. Should he succeed in doing so, I will ensure that all of your wretched people and everything you hold dear dies with us! In case you think I am bluffing…”
“Please don’t do this!!”, the woman pleaded, “Oliver please do something, what about our ba-”
Hearing her words cut off, followed by the thump of something hitting the ground, the Holy Knights knew what happened. Trembling with anger and fear, none of them dared to utter a sound for fear their loved one would be next. Seeing that none of them tried to defy him, his rage eased a bit allowing the men to recover a bit.
“My suggestion to all of you is to ensure the Resistance is taken care of before he reaches them. While you may not be his equal, by any means, I am sure you can find a way to get him to stand down. He was once a Hero and Paladin so given enough persuasion he might leave this world.”, the God of Deceit told them, “I leave it to you to find the best method.”
“It…it will be done!”, Hendrickson promised, “We will see that they are driven from this world!”
“Good…now get going Maggots!!!”, the God of Deceit roared in anger.
Stepping out from the group of people, an elderly came forward to speak on behalf of the settlement. Introducing himself as the mayor, he vigorously shook my hand as he expressed his gratitude for removing the sword. Telling him it wasn’t that big of a deal and not to worry about it, the old man wouldn’t let it go.
“You have brought life back to our village, to us this is a very big deal.”, he insisted, “If you hadn’t come along today, we would have left tomorrow morning to seek shelter in other villages. There was no guarantee that they would have accepted us, but now we don’t need to worry about that!”
“I am glad you are optimistic, but what about your food stores?”, I reminded him, “Surely you are running low at this point, and with no money to purchase any you will starve here.”
“We…we will figure out a way. Now that the sword is gone plants should start growing normally again allowing us to forage for food.”, he assured me as his stomach growled loudly.
Not wanting a repeat of my early days in Alestar, I pulled out six months of rations to feed the villagers. Staring at the palettes of food, the villagers looked at it with worried expressions. Telling me they had nothing to offer for the supplies, I assured them there was another way to repay me. Pretending to have come from a faraway land, the repayment I desired was information that the mayor was more than willing to provide.
“So what’s this business about Apostles?”, I inquired, “Forgive my ignorance, but I haven’t heard of them before.”
“You must have been living far out in the wilderness not to know about them, they are chosen members of the Living God Church. As the Living God’s personal enforcers, each one cares a small fragment of his power and will carry out his will without hesitation.”, the mayor said with a terrified expression, “They are heartless…it is like all the kindness and humanity they once had is gone. I personally watched them raze a small village to the ground because a child mispronounced the Living God’s name. All of them were burned alive in their homes while the Apostle stood there praising their God.”
‘It’s as I thought, he’s been using his powers to brainwash people into his mindless slaves. The Apostles are probably strong fighters that have been manipulated into following him.’, I thought with a disgusted look, ‘Who the hell would willingly follow that fucker, he’s a coward and a piece of shit.’
Wondering what happen to the people after I killed him, the biggest concern was whether they’d remember what they did. If they were truly evil people, I’d kill them and save everyone a lot of time. My concern was that they were likely good people that had fallen into his clutches and were being forced to do these horrible things. If they were aware of what was going on, but couldn’t control themselves…oh boy they will need therapy.
“So the Hero that almost died touching the sword, who were they?”, I questioned.
“Ah, that would be Lady Glass.”, he replied, “She came with the other Heroes about a month ago, they risked a lot to bring us supplies and attempted to remove the sword while they were here. They tried to persuade us to leave with them, but we could not travel several thousand miles with them across enemy territory. We would have only slowed them down and potentially got them spotted by the enemy. The Living God has Holy Knights ”
Understanding that, I was surprised they even suggested it given the people’s current conditions. Insisting that they do more than just give us common information I opted to ask for a map as I wasn’t familiar with this world. Telling me he had a spare he could provide me, he asked me to wait a moment so he could go get it. As I watched him disappear into town, I returned to the carriage to update everyone.
Knocking on the window to get someone’s attention, Clover opened it up a few moments later asking if something was wrong. Telling her that something was off about this world, I said there were too many differences from what I knew which made me uncomfortable. Telling her about the sword that was embedded in the ground and the Holy Knights, she asked me what was off about that.
“Are you concerned that you aren’t going to be strong enough to take them?”, she teased me.
“Of course not, you should know better than that.”, I chuckled with a grin, “I think I know who the person was that cursed the village, a Holy Knight named Gilthunder. The problem is he shouldn’t be in this world, he’s from a completely different world full of Demons, Gods, and other races. If he is here, that means someone brought him and given who he is working for…”
“You think the God of Deceit somehow got into another world and messed with that one too, got it.”, she remarked, “Couldn’t he have been brought by Ciri, and something happened to them both?”
“That’s a possibility too I suppose, we will need to meet up with the Heroes here and see what information we can get out of them. Since Eri, Kota, and Fuyumi are on break see if they want to take a family road trip together. It’s been a while since we have gone on a journey together, could be a lot of fun!”, I suggested.
Telling me she’d go and ask everyone else, she personally was more than up for the trip. Even though modern amenities were nice, there was something special about being out on the road together. Seeing different places, meeting new people, and making memories were all part of the fun which I hoped to share with our children. Leaving it to her, I stood next to the carriage waiting for the mayor’s return.
“Sorry about the wait!”, he panted as he returned ten minutes later, “It took some time, but I found the map you requested.”
Handing me the parchment, I unfolded the map and took a look at it. From my very vague recollection everything appeared to be right so at least I knew this was Glass’ world. Thanking him for the map, I wished him the best of luck before getting back into the coachman’s seat and guided the Filoials out of the settlement.
—3rd Person POV—
Running through the temple in a hurry, Vermillion had urgent news for her father. Having sensed the destruction of one of her handmade Divine Weapons, she knew only one person capable of destroying it which was bad news for them. Pushing servants and Holy Knights out of her way she quickly reached her father’s private chambers. Under normal circumstances, she’d have to knock on the door first but now wasn’t the time for that.
“Father!!”, she shouted as she kicked the doors in, “He’s in this world now, Cole is here! One of my Divine Weapons was-”
“I know…”, he replied looking out his window, “I sensed him when he used his Destruction Power on it, he’s grown much more dangerous. That blasted God of Reincarnation created a monster, and now we are being hunted by him! Have you had any luck locating allies using the powers I gave you?”
“My apologies Father, I haven’t found any stronger fighters than what we have in our ranks already.”, she said hanging her head low, “I can continue to search for allies if you wish.”
“No, don’t bother now.”, the God of Deceit complained, “He’s already here so it’s too late to prepare further, we will work with what we have at hand. Summon all the Holy Knights and Apostles in the capital, they need a reminder of what failure means moving forward…”
Turning around to get dressed in his formal clothing, the women that had been attending to him earlier shrieked and scurried away in fright. The moment the deity had sensed Cole’s presence, he flew into a rage and began taking his anger out on the women Vermillion had caught for him. Had Vermillion shown up minutes earlier, she’d have heard their pleas for mercy and help.
“Bring me fresh women this evening, I bore of these broken toys.”, the God of Deceit told his daughter.
“Of course.”, she said hiding her disgust for his hobbies well, “Apostles, see to it that these women are disposed of properly.”
Once their God had walked into his private bathroom, several Apostles marched in and seized them. Realizing they were about to be killed, the women pleaded with Vermillion and the Apostles to just let them go. Swearing not to tell a soul about what had occurred, their pleas fell on deaf ears. Dragging them out of the room and past a group of two Holy Knights, one woman grabbed onto one of their legs for dear life.
“Sir Knight, please help us!!”, the woman cried as her grip started to fail, “I don’t want to die!! We want to return to our families, our husbands and children are waiting for us!!”
“They aren’t waiting for you, they are already dead.”, the Holy Knight replied with a cold look, “Did you really think witnesses would be left alive? The moment you entered this temple your families were branded heretics, and burned alive at the stake.”
Watching her facial expression shatter, the women started crying as they were dragged to the Executioner. Holding back their emotions, both Knights stood there listening to their wailing. No longer crying about their own lives, they cried for the loss of their families whom they had been assured were safe and sound. Waiting for their cries to disappear, one of the men couldn’t hold it in any longer.
“God Damnit all!”, he cried hitting the wall with his fist, “If only we could do something!!”
“Be silent Griamore!”, his friend scolded him in a low tone, “You know what will happen if someone hears you!”
“Gilthunder, I can’t keep this up forever!”, Griamore whimpered, “That was the twelve group of women this month…how many people are we going to damn before we do something!?”
“The Sins, Goddesses, and Demons couldn’t stop Vermillion or the Living God…what do you expect us to do?”, Gilthunder remarked holding his frustration back, “All we can do is follow orders, or else we-”
Before he could finish his sentence, Vermillion walked out of her father’s chambers. Realizing that she may have overheard their conversation, the two men stood at attention and feared the worst. Turning to look at them with an uncaring stare, she gave the men an order.
“Both of you round up the Apostles and Holy Knights immediately, the Living God has a Decree!”, she snarled before storming off.
Once she was out of sight, the two men let out a sigh of relief. Both thought for sure she was going to kill them, but they somehow escaped her ear. Doing as they were ordered, both men quickly gathered everyone in the Great Hall for the Decree. Kneeling down as the Living God entered the room, Gilthunder could sense that something was amiss. For the first time since meeting him, he noticed a brief moment of fear on his face.
‘Did something happen?’, he wondered while keeping his head down.
Quickly giving Apostles marching orders to begin fortifying the city, he dismissed them in a hurry so he could move on. Once they were gone, his attention turned to them and the knights could feel his rage bearing down on their backs. Thinking that maybe they had been caught talking in the hallway, Gilthunder and Griamore readied themselves for what was about to happen.
“It’s been four months now since we took your people in, and saved you from a slow, cold death in the White Frost. Now is the time that you can start to show me how truly grateful you are for our generous gesture.”, he told them Vermillion brought a woman into the room, “An enemy of mine has shown himself on this world, and he intends to take my head as well as my daughters. Should he succeed in doing so, I will ensure that all of your wretched people and everything you hold dear dies with us! In case you think I am bluffing…”
“Please don’t do this!!”, the woman pleaded, “Oliver please do something, what about our ba-”
Hearing her words cut off, followed by the thump of something hitting the ground, the Holy Knights knew what happened. Trembling with anger and fear, none of them dared to utter a sound for fear their loved one would be next. Seeing that none of them tried to defy him, his rage eased a bit allowing the men to recover a bit.
“My suggestion to all of you is to ensure the Resistance is taken care of before he reaches them. While you may not be his equal, by any means, I am sure you can find a way to get him to stand down. He was once a Hero and Paladin so given enough persuasion he might leave this world.”, the God of Deceit told them, “I leave it to you to find the best method.”
“It…it will be done!”, Hendrickson promised, “We will see that they are driven from this world!”
“Good…now get going Maggots!!!”, the God of Deceit roared in anger.
