Badge in Azure

Over a hundred people simply stood on a hill like they were being nailed to the ground about 10 miles away from the village. The strongest of the golden-armored warriors were but silver grand swordmasters, preventing them from seeing what was happening over 10 miles away.

Even the 12 adjudicators were incapable of seeing so far away. Only the great head inquisitor was able to observe patiently with the Eye of Divine Smith in his hand. The demon was baiting him to make a move. Should I make a move here?

If he were to do nothing, the demon would have had no problem killing the priest and the believers. While his subordinates were unable to see anything happening there, everyone passing by the village would know what was going on.

His subordinates would not hold it against him if he were to do nothing. However, the demon would not stop at once. There would be another town another few miles away from there, and there would be a church in there as well.

What if the demons massacred the holy masters in that church? There would be another small city about 300 miles beyond that town. If they were to move 600 miles further, they would find themselves before a garrison of the Tribunal. Should I act now, or should I wait for a little bit longer?

Nailisi eyed the believers who were glaring at her. Such puny creatures actually have the courage to stand up against me because they have faith. Is this a good thing or a bad thing?

“So, the act of the Holy See starting up wars and having Kroraina and Qin plunged in the flames of war was a manifestation of god’s wrath. Am I correct?” Nailisi asked.

“Indeed. Dirty defilers are not fit to live on Myers Mainland,” the believer said.

“Aren’t any of you afraid of death for talking to me like that?” Nailisi’s tone was not eerie at all. She suddenly understood how mages felt. A decent humans turned incredibly stupid just because they came to believe in some god. Everything was “god said this, and god said that.” Whatever “god said” would be the ultimate truth. There was no need to learn, research, or explore.

What is the difference from being dead if one was to live like that?

“Death? Can you actually kill me?” That believer gave a sarcastic smirk. “Death was but the beginning. I will live forever in heaven.”

“Live forever! Haha, even the gods themselves can’t live forever. Those lies are good for only fooling stupid *sses like you people.” Nailisi lost any interest in arguing with the believers.

She was able to see from Saleen’s Sensory Sharing that the ones at the hill had no intention of coming into the village to rescue their people. The priest and believers before her had outlived their usefulness.

That priest suddenly said, “Defiler, you shall forever be condemned in the purgatory of god. You shall suffer eternal pain in the fires of purgatory!”

Nailisi was angry. You puny holy master, whose level is no better than a level two mage, dare to try to use curses on me?

Even if the curse were to succeed, the priest would have died immediately. The price for cursing a demon of such levels was not something a priest like this one would have been able to bear. Furthermore, the curse that the priest used was the vilest of curses. If the priest were to succeed, he would have been able to truly drag the enemy’s soul into the Lord of Glory’s purgatory and rob the enemy of their freedom for eternity.

Then again, even a level nine holy master would have found it difficult to curse Nailisi. Being a demon already made it difficult to curse her. Additionally, she already had two doubles in the 12 Notes of First Purgatory.

The doubles continued to supply power to Nailisi. One of the doubles was in the purgatory of the fallen while the other was in the purgatory of purification. Both of those doubles were anti-god and anti-divine spell doubles. They were extremely lethal to gods and those wielding divine arts.

Even a level nine holy master would have had to be condemned right there and then if they were to be thrown into any of the two purgatories. There was no way a village priest’s curse would have succeeded on Nailisi.

Nailisi’s original, near-dissipated intention of killing those people before her was riled up again by the curse. She grabbed onto the priest, brought him to her, and squeezed. With a sheepish smile, she said, “You mentioned purgatory, didn’t you? Well then, let me show you what the fires of purgatory are like.”

She drew a wisp of fire from her double in the purgatory of the fallen and spat it right on the priest’s face. The priest began to burn with pale grey flames. The flames did not stop by burning the priest’s body; it burned his soul as well.

The priest immediately shrieked in pain. The pain of the soul was an unbearable one. Furthermore, he was able to witness from the flames of the purgatory of the fallen how the kingdoms of various gods were broken and attacked by humans. His faith collapsed right there and then.

Without a belief supporting his soul, the priest was little more than a professional who was slightly stronger than common folk. There was no way he could have been able to bear such pain.

“As for you people, you are humans who have chosen to have faith in a puny god. It’s an utter disgrace,” Nailisi said as she chucked the three believers with adamant beliefs into the purgatory of the fallen.

The other six attempted to run, but there was nowhere to run to. They had curled up at the walls when they saw the demon begin to kill people. They cried and begged Nailisi for mercy. “We don’t believe that thing. We don’t believe him at all.”

“Spare me, I’ll never listen to him again…”

“You all are the true filth of the bunch.” Nailisi slapped hard.

The two-story building collapsed right there and then. The six false believers were instantly turned to mush. She did not even bother picking up their dirty souls.

“Master, let’s go.” Nailisi was very irked, but she was unable to tell why she felt so.

Saleen nodded and took Nailisi away from the village with the demons. The conversation between the demon and the believers put him in deep thought and made him understand that humans were once a glorious race, but they were no longer so. The weak, dirty parts of humanity were laid right before his eyes, as well as the pitiful foolishness.

Humanity was not actually such. All that was but a part of the human soul. When their race was no longer glorious, the pitiful, vile parts emerged. Saleen was not disappointed. There were, after all, still humans who refused to yield and fall.

For example, most mages found on the mainland did not betray their own faith even when the powers across Myers Mainland had fallen to its lowest point. It was a faith in themselves that the mages existed to understand thoroughly the truth of the world. To mages, combat was but a small part of their lives. Most of their time was spent conducting experiments, doing calculations, learning, and creating.

The collapsed house was at the other end of the village. Saleen turned around as he followed the squad of demons out of the village. He found the group at the hill had finally moved. They were moving at the same speed as Saleen’s group.

He pointed at the collapsed house and said to everyone around him, “You see that? Even when Titan had fallen for years, it was still immensely difficult for the Holy See to propagate their faith. Most people, even such a small village, refuse to buy into their lies.”

Saleen’s words were actually meant for himself. In his mind, he had already developed some vague structures of how to propagate Nature Faith and what to preach. There would be no more lies about the gods creating the world. Every being would have the chance to become a god.

The 200 demons left from the main path and the peasants in the village slowly began to gather. The villagers were puzzled as to how to clean up the mess left behind while over a hundred golden-armored knights charged into the village from the other end.

The knights in gold all held lances of over 13-feet long. The knights spread out when they came to the village. Half of them stepped into the fields while the other half rushed into the collapse white house.

The golden-armored knights began to slaughter everyone before the villagers were able to react.

“All who defiles the gods shall die!” The great head inquisitor gave the order to slaughter everyone in the scene without giving any explanations.

Many of the villagers had witnessed a demon killing a priest and had heard of the conversation between them. What happened would have been very bad for the Holy See’s rule.

The village was not actually that small. The knights chased after peasants in the fields as they killed them. While there were a magic beast or two used for plowing the fields retaliating and some retired soldiers fought back with hoes, the task given by the great head inquisitor was easily accomplished.

There were only a swordmaster or two in a village like that.

However, the fields were vast. There were peasants faraway running into the mountains. The great head inquisitor took out a golden book with a cold expression. There was a huge “X” mark on the cover of the book.

No script or form of writing on Myers Mainland had such a hard, geometrical alphabet. The symbol was something from another plane. The great head inquisitor opened the golden book. The 12 adjudicators circled around him, beginning to chant prayers.

A huge, black “X” mark flew into the air, forming into a huge dark cloud. Every single living being shrouded by the mark withered. The handful of running peasants and ones hiding in the holes of their own fields died without making a sound.

The young adjudicators saw the great head inquisitor put the golden book away as the sky began to light up. It was only then that they stopped chanting.

The golden-armored knights returned to their formations one after another. They looked unfazed, just like the great head inquisitor. For them, the order from the great head inquisitor was to be executed to the letter without the slightest of doubt. The reason for killing peasants did not matter.

“Let’s go.” The great head inquisitor felt Saleen’s group had gone too far by then. He held onto the reins and had his people pursue them westward.

The golden-armored team followed quickly. The village burned in great flames. Everything was reduced to ashes. It was as if the village had never existed in the first place.

A long time after the great head inquisitor left, a short figure was seen crawling out from the rubble. It was none other than the boy, Gagas, who had talked to Nailisi. While he had suffered burns on his limbs, he felt nothing.

Everything in the village was destroyed. He was the only one left alive. He held onto the carving that Nailisi gave him as a present. The small demon statue only had half of it left. The other half had burned to nothing. If it had not been for the statue protecting him, the boy would have died as well.

“Dad? Mom?” Gagas did not cry. He dared not cry before seeing his parents.

There was no one around to answer him. The villagers were the target of the great head inquisitor’s divine spell. Even the scavenging magic beasts in the air and the rats underground perished under the workings of that spell.

As the sky gradually turned dark, there were some houses still burning. The air was scorching hot. Tears fell out of Gagas’ eyes as he began to leave the village, one step at a time.

He was all that was left in the area. He was still holding on to half of that statue in his hand.