Pale skin.

On the bed lies a naked woman on her back. A tall woman with long, chestnut hair. Her head is placed on a clean, white pillow.

Her skin has no blemishes, no irregularities, no injuries... this cannot be said.

What was once lightly tanned and vibrant with a slight, pink hue is pale, too pale to be considered healthy.

Her eyes are closed. She appears to have been crying; the sunlight flowing from the window a few feet behind her headboard show the sparkle of tears. She had been crying recently.

On her face is a trail of blood that appears to have fallen from her mouth down her chin.

Why was she spitting blood?

A question that doesn’t need to be asked because on her chest is a large, bloody opening, right through her sternum.

A trail of blood flows from that hole down to her abdomon where her fingers are interlocked, her hands resting together.

A large pool of blood appears on the floor in front of her bed, the bed itself parallel to and near the wall opposite to the door, the woman’s head oriented to the right, in the direction of the right wall’s window and her feet oriented to the left.

On the bed itself is a large, burgundy stain under her body and streaking over the edge of the bed itself.

Spilled blood.

At the door is Ajax.

Ajax doesn’t register any of this, at least he tries not to.

He has walked to this open door with optimism and vitality and he sees the woman, his beloved friend Shaula, prepared as if this room is the site of her wake.

“Sh...Shau...la”

Ajax slowly walks into the room, dumbfounded. Her corpse starts to register to him. This is--

Suddenly from behind, Ajax feels a hand forcing him to the ground. He feels this hand (a left hand?) on his upper back and another hand on his neck.

He lies flat on the ground, his arms at his sides. His head is turned to the left and he can no longer see Shaula or the bed. He feels blood on his front soaking through his clothing and on his face but he can’t feel how cold it is...

He can’t really tell how long Shaula has been dead, as a result.

He is pinned down, unable to move.

At least now, he can focus on this, who’s holding him down, another set of surprising events, rather than the site of the... death of... Sh--

Ajax can hear the door to the room being closed by someone else.

He hears a set of slow footsteps walk towards him. The shoes of the person wearing them are both hard and heavy. Or perhaps the person is heavy.

Ajax can see his feet while turned to the left. His black shoes appear three feet in front of his face. The pants of this man are black as well.

Ajax can moves his eyes up to look at the face of the man and notices that... the man is wearing a black religious habit. His face is clean shaven and right at the cusp of middle age.

At least, as far as Ajax can tell while looking at him with his head pinned to the ground.

Ajax’s mind is extremely distraught right now; he accepts his capture without struggle for the moment. Just a moment of peace. A moment where he can listen to someone else without facing the bad things in this world.

In this pit of damnation.

The person pinning him to the ground speaks. Ajax cannot see this individual’s clothes, body or face.

“Sir, this man is definitely the other spy, the other ‘hero’ who doesn’t have the grace of God. Ajax Leonid.”

“Thank you, Andal, for the confirmation. So... you are the other one who infiltrated here...”

Ajax doesn’t respond. He doesn’t speak. He behaves like a dead man. Perhaps that will be his fate soon after this. The man in black standing before him speaks again.

“That woman there... she had been shouting for you. I really don’t get the play you two were going for. Pretending to be brother and sister... a couple? You could have picked better ways to get in here, couldn’t you?”

Ajax doesn’t respond. He barely even registers what was said. His face shows only despondency.

“Oh, where are my manners, let me introduce myself. My name is Cardinal Gratia Loqus. I am a Cardinal of the Holy Sapioran Federation. A holy enemy of demonkind. The man holding you is Archbishop Andal Frasia, I think you were introduced him earlier?”

Ajax doesn’t reply to any of it. He doesn’t introduce himself. His eyes are dead.

“Your eminence... do you really think this man is with the demons? Was that woman either? I’ve been wondering about whether they are truly traitors... they spoke a foreign language, Cardinal. A language that sounded very similar to the ‘English’ passed down in my family.”

“Oh yes... I believe your great-grandfather was a hero?”

“Yes, your eminence, my mother used to teach me the language so it would never be forgotten. The syntax and words are somewhat different though...”

“Well, first of all, I don’t think that these two are with the demons at all.”

“What?”

“Yes, I have a new theory. Well, first obviously, they’re not summoned heroes because this one here killed the two holy knights, uh...”

“Creta and Kinser.”

Ajax pricks his ears to the names. The names of the ones he’s killed. He had left his room hardly a minute ago. How could they possibly know that so quickly?

“Right, I apologize, Andal, their loss is a dear one.”

“It’s alright, Cardinal.”

“So, if Ajax here killed them then it’s impossible for him to be a hero. Any hero who has ever been summoned has, at most, been as strong as a holy knight recruit when they reach our world. There’s no way that a newly summoned hero could defeat Creta and Kinser both, in battle.”

“Yes, your eminence, Kinser, especially, has power almost at the level of a bishop. I tested his strength myself.”

“But... the demons are honestly too competent to attempt something as shoddy as this.”

“Cardinal?”

“My current understanding is that the Enkel nobility sent these two here to be discovered as fakes as quickly as possible. Ajax and Shaula here seem to need each other for whatever plan they worked up so it made sense that Ajax would try to get to Shaula as fast as possible. By searching through our building, for example.”

“Yes, the trap worked well.”

“Now... it’s possible, and mind you this is only a theory, that the Enkel nobility wants our church to distrust the summoned heroes by mixing in fakes with the bunch. Then they can ask for jurisdiction over maybe a portion or so of the heroes and undercut our power.”

“I see... with the church’s authority weakened, the Enkel nobility could stage a revolt against the holy city and assume control over Enkel and the remnants of humanity.”

“You get it... it would also explain how these two knew words that should be unknown to those on the demon side. These two must be affiliated with a noble family with a heroic bloodline. Plus, to be honest, this level of incompetence screams Duke-level stupidity.”

Ajax cannot believe what he is hearing. Are these two idiots? Just huge, fucking idiots? Ajax cannot handle their stupidity any longer. He has to speak up.

But... not about what they’ve been saying. They’re too far gone to believe him now. Especially after he killed their men.

“...what... what did you do... to Shaula...”

Tears start flowing down Ajax’s face onto the floor. They drip down into the blood of Shaula under Ajax’s face, mixing with it and disappearing.

“Oh, that... I had captured this spy and was in the process of questioning her. Incidentally, she kept asking to see where you were... Then I told her that I needed to perform a search on her to ensure that she had no hidden weapons. My mere touch revolted her. She thought I was some perverse old man, or was that the act she was attempting? The nerve... I am a man of the divine creator Sapiora...”

Ajax listens intently. For what reason... for what reason did he have to kill her?

Was it because she had thought that the strange man attempting to search her was a pervert and resisted his advances?

Was it the ‘fact’ that she was a spy according to the unbelievable farce that this moron had cooked up in his head with no proof?

Why?

“She scratched my face. She disfigured me. In my anger, I struck her chest with perhaps too much force and made the opening you saw just now.”

Ajax turned his eyes to the man’s face, his head still locked on the ground.

There were no marks. No scratches. No open wounds. Nothing so much as a blemish on his face.

“You... you don’t have a mark on your face...”

“That is correct. I am a cardinal, a divine emissary of Sapiora. I used my healing magic to close the wound and repaired the damage. But really, what did you think would happen? An intruder enters this sacred place and scratches my face and I’m supposed to just let that go? She shouldn’t have tried to sneak in. Honestly...”

The archbishop shakes his head exasperatedly.

Not a shred of doubt. Of guilt. Of pain. Of wound. Nothing. This man... had killed Shaula... for... nothing.

Such a thing... cannot go... unpun--

“Aaaaaiiiiieeeeee!!”

“Wh--”

Ajax feels the hands on his back and neck harden and then release. Then he feels a rush of vigour. A sharp overflowing over strength. What had just...

“My arms!! My arms are frozen!!”

Ajax rises to his feet in a flash and looks behind him. He sees the man named Andal, in his red religious habit, stepping back towards the door.

His arms... crumble away. They had become brittle like glass, in an instant.

It seems I activated my--

Ajax turns around and sees Cardinal Gratia in front of him, standing between where Ajax is and in front of the bed where Shaula lies.

Before Ajax can respond or react, Gratia takes hold of Ajax by the neck with his right hand.

Gratia raises Ajax up in the air, only with the strength of his right arm. He doesn’t even seem to be expending much effort.

A truly strong man.

“I wanted to get more information from you but... you shouldn’t have done that.”

Ajax sees Gratia before him. Then... a brightness over Ajax’s eyes blocking everything from view. Fire. Bluish-white in colour, burning extremely brightly.

“By the will of my God Sapiora, I exact divine punishment upon you, child of Azazelin.”

Ajax is engulfed by a bright, blue flame. Fire hot enough to melt platinum. Thousands of degrees of heat. A fire coming from the hand holding Ajax’s throat.

However...

“What did you think that would do?”

“Wh--”

Ajax is not hurt by the fire. He is not harmed in the slightest. It feels like... like a living liquid, maybe more like a pressure, enveloping him.

It fills his heart with life. It feels like gold is flowing through his veins. Power. He wants more.

He wants it all.

The fire disappears from the surface of Ajax’s body. Ajax tries to absorb the heat from Gratis’ hands but Gratis lets go, pulling his hand back.

Ajax drops to the floor, stumbling and landing on his left knee. He has more power than ever now. This man has signed his own entrance pass to hell.

But consequently, he’s going to be facing a stronger enemy now.