Emilia carried the unconscious necromancer through the blood-soaked streets of Crescent. Pieces of the paladins and their armor were scattered everywhere. What had happened didn’t mean the end of the whole church, but would limit their operations considerably as none of the other temples around the world had gathered as much power, mostly due to local governing bodies not agreeing with their practices. There were some smaller kingdoms that shared the hatred for the nonhuman races, but the tyrannical nature of their leaders prevented the church of Sylvia from growing beyond their control.

Aside from a few braver citizens, the people of Crescent were still hiding in their dwellings, fearing that some kind of divine judgement had fallen upon them. They weren’t exactly wrong.

“Your holiness!” A young man, in his early twenties, sought answers and approached the priestess. “What happened? Has some unholy force targeted the city?” He asked and grabbed Emilia’s sleeve.

Emilia smiled gently and answered. “Quite the opposite, my child. The church itself was a cruel bastardization beyond saving. The deity it claimed to serve had to step down to our world and staunch the flames of its corruption.”

The man took a step back. “L…lady Sylvia did this? This is the god we’re supposed to worship?” He uttered in confusion.

“It was our own fault since we let it get this far. But Lady Sylvia knows that the people of this city are faithful to a fault and will not let it happen again, for as long as there are people still following her. In the evening, gather as many people as you can and bring them to the central square. You will be given guidance there.” Emilia instructed him.

The man was clearly not content with the answer, But Emilia was sure that he would spread the word. It remained to be seen whether her audience would be an angry mob or a herd of lost people.

More and more people came out to see what had happened, the misconception that something unholy was afoot spread quickly and Emilia was surrounded by more and more believers, desperately seeking for answers.

“You’re the last member of the church in the city. Can you protect us” A voice from the crowd asked.

“Will this happen again?” Added another one. “Are we safe?”

The questions seemed endless and for every person Emilia told to come to the central square, two more would appear. It took nearly two hours for them to get back to the inn, in a normal situation it would have been a five-minute walk.

Emilia asked Edgar to bar the inn’s door to get a moment of silence and peace. She went to the basement to put Anastacia down on her bed.

“What the fuck did you do?! Why are you covered in blood?” Rosie demanded answers. She was not happy that the two had been keeping her in the dark about the plan.

She would have demanded a part in it, but lacked the combat abilities to protect herself against a horde of paladins and having a beastfolk with them would have gathered too much attention.

“Are you two at least okay?” She asked and did her best to calm down.

Emilia wiped off some of the blood on Anastacia’s face. “Ah… Yeah. We’re both fine now. I’ll explain later. Anna has had a rough day, could you get the bloody clothes off her and get her something fresh to wear? I need to prepare for a speech.” She said, avoiding details.

“Why does it have to be blood every damn time…” Anastacia muttered when she woke up, still feeling slightly nauseous. Rosie had taken the blindfold off her to wash the blood off her face. She dreaded to look down at her clothes and tried feeling whether they were still wet. “Huh? This isn’t what I had on. Emilia, did you cha… HOW THE FUCK IS YOUR CLOAK CLEAN AGAIN?! It’s not even stained!”

The priestess shrugged. She had been waiting for Anastacia to wake up. ”It just kind of… goes away? How are you feeling? I asked Rosie to change your clothes. She’s upstairs, making us something to eat.” She got up from the other bed and sat next to Anastacia. “Could you not tell anyone that I got you killed? Gilbert and Rosie would probably kill me…” She pleaded in a hushed voice.

“You didn’t, it was that shithead with a crossbow. Everything aside from that happened because I did what I wanted to do, and would do again.” Anastacia reassured her. “There are times I’d rather be just a normal kid, but there are also times like this, that make me happy to be what I am. There’s no way you could have gotten the relics without me.”

Emilia looked at the necromancer’s throat, there wasn’t even a scar left. “Are you sure you’re okay? You’d think dying would have some impact on a person.” She asked and touched the spot the arrow had hit.

“It did hurt, in case you’re wondering. But after that, all I did was have a chat with Sylvia. Aside from the horrible, horrible massacre, she’s lovely.” Anastacia grinned.

Emilia went silent for a second and stared at her friend. “You… spoke with her?” She confirmed because Anastacia didn’t seem to be joking.

Anastacia explained what had happened, in detail. The knowledge that someone had also interacted with Sylvia lifted a massive weight from her shoulders. There had always been a slight doubt in her heart, that maybe she was just delusional like everyone said. Every miracle she had performed could just have been some leftover power from the holy mace she carried. But having someone else talk to the god and even get brought back from the dead, proved that she could indeed speak with the divine.

“Now that I’m sort of indebted to her, do I need to join the fan club? With you being the leader and everything, maybe I can get some membership perks early on?” The necromancer wondered. The goddess was obviously real and had an effect on the world, so worshipping her would give some guaranteed returns.

“No. You and everyone else who hangs around in the inn are too close to me.” Emilia pointed out. “I was told to seek companionship with people that have no relation to My Lady. Having followers with me all the time would only narrow my view of the world. I need people to rein me in, as does everyone else who seeks to do good.”

After eating a well needed meal, it was time for the speech. Emilia left her two friends at the inn and headed for the central square.

Anastacia tried to find something to do, so she wouldn’t have to think about her death. She went through her pockets and came across the note in her pocket. “Hey, Rosie. Sylvia asked me to give you this. She said it was ONLY for you, I was going to read it but sort of forgot.” She tossed the neatly folded paper to Rosie.

The tigress inspected the note before finally opening it. “Gods leave notes now? What could she possi… oh wow.” Rosie read the note again, she mouthed the words but Anastacia couldn’t quite read her lips.

Anastacia tried to peek at the text but Rosie quickly stuffed the paper into her pocket. “What?! Is it something funny? Tell me!” She demanded.

Rosie pushed the curious teen away. “No. Maybe by the time you’re 50, you might be ready for it, but I’m not promising anything.” She said in a serious tone.

“Screw you and that divine tart! I’m not a kid anymore!” Anastacia protested.

The square was still caked with blood and bits of paladins. On hindsight, Emilia though she may have picked the wrong place for the gathering. Though the whole city was covered in blood, there must have been a place that didn’t have 50 or so corpses lying around.

People started to slowly gather to the square, the lack of pitchforks and torches calmed the priestess down slightly. It didn’t take long for the square and the surrounding streets to fill up with hundreds of people, though it was nowhere near all who wanted to meet the priestess, it would have to do.

Emilia cleared her throat and started the speech. “People of Crescent, first and foremost I would like to apologize that it took so long for me to arrive. Two years ago, this could have been done without bloodshed and carnage, but as the chosen of Sylvia, I was not ready. I heard many people express their concern about how this might be some unholy attack on the church or the city, but do not worry, it was My… no… OUR Lady Sylvia who rid this beautiful city of its disease! Too long had the church here oppressed its followers, demanding tributes and subjugating entire races of people. However, those times are now over and we are freed to express our faith how it was meant to!”

An old man came forth from the crowd and interrupted the priestess. ”You’re saying that this was done by Lady Sylvia, the goddess of joy?” The man doubted. “I saw the beast rampage through the streets! It was without a doubt a demon! Claws covered in blood of the paladins, horns sharpened on bone and armor, fertile body to tempt the men of faith with and wings of fire! That was no goddess of joy!”

A few others who claimed to have seen a demon came forth to support the old man. “And the songs! A voice so enchanting that the paladins just walked to their deaths in the hands of the beast! I’m lucky that my wife was able to stop me from going outside too!” Someone shouted.

Emilia was confused, she had never seen the goddess clearly, but that didn’t sound right at all. First of all, it was her body that the goddess had taken ahold of and Anastacia didn’t mention anything about a demon. She had to figure something out to calm the crowd. “That may have been what you saw, but the divine are without material forms in this world, perhaps it was just a vessel suitable for the deed of cleansing the city of corruption?” Was what she came up with.

The explanation divided the crowd in two, half didn’t seem to care what a goddess looked like, all that mattered was her actions and intent behind them, and indeed the church had been trampling over its followers. The other half couldn’t get over the description. In addition, there was a third, smaller group, whose view on the matter was explained very well by one of its members. “I’ll worship some fiery tits. They bring me joy more than anything.”

Emilia thought that these people were dumbasses, but it’s not like that wasn’t a valid reason for worship. In fact, Sylvia would probably favor these people for their attitude towards life.

The city may have been divided but the situation wasn’t explosive. Emilia explained that Sylvia didn’t care for temples or donations. All she needed was that everyone kept a small statue or shrine for her in their home or some gathering place and remembered her in times of great joy. Even the people that believed that the city had been attacked by a demon, didn’t abandon their faith.

The next problem would be getting a priest or a priestess for the city. Emilia didn’t want to stay in the city forever and Sylvia needed someone who could offer guidance for the people in her name and keep the situation between the factions from getting worse. And of course, cleaning up the city, the rotting flesh would start to smell soon enough.