《The Monkey God》Chapter 21 : The Holy Church
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After finishing his cultivation, Drake decided to take to take out the talisman left behind by Darth. He was hesitating to activate it. He knew they were not safe yet and with Arte next to them he had to keep his guard up.
But, he wanted to listen to it. He believed himself to have no feelings towards the monkey village, yet, he couldn't help but have a burden in his stomach every time he thought about the destruction. He wanted to know what happened.
"I have been in this area a lot, this is where I grew stronger hunting beasts, but no matter how many times I visited I have never seen another golden-haired monkey before," Arte said making Drake instantly hide the talisman. "Yet now, after I received a message from my clan leader to pay attention for any strange beasts, here they are."
The moment Drake heard that he jumped up while taking out his staff and taking a defensive position.
"Relax, I do not have any intention to do anything to you two." Arte laughed, seeing that Drake was ready to fight. "I was just wondering about who you guys were. Not only our beast clan, who usually looks down on other beasts, sent a message to keep an eye out for you, but the Holy Church is also after your lives."
"Holy Church? Is that where these soldiers belong to?" Drake asked without lowering his guard at all.
"Come on, stop joking with me, half of the world is marked with that disgusting symbol. There is no way you don't know about them." Arte replied.
An awkward silence followed Arte's words with Drake staring emotionlessly at him.
"Wait, you seriously don't know?" Arte exclaimed with shock.
"I wouldn't ask if I knew about them ."
"Holy shit dude, which part of the forest did you guys crawled out from? Fine, I will explain everything I know, but in return, you have to tell me who are you and why they are hunting you." Arte offered.
Drake looked deeply into Arte. Letting someone know about his race was not a good move, but he wanted to know about the Holy Knights that are chasing them. After giving it some thought, he decided it was worth the risk since to fight against them, he needed to get to know them first.
"Fine." Drake finally agreed to Arte's proposition lowering his guard and hiding his staff.
Arte, having a triumphant look on his face, proceeded to explain.
"Holy Church is the most prominent religion in the whole world right now. They existed for thousands and thousands of years.
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"Back then, they were not that strong since humans had a passive attitude against the beasts since they were afraid of us. Humans stayed in their cities, rarely venturing out to beast territories. In return, didn't enter their area. Even though we were not afraid of them, they were still a force to be reckoned with.
"But suddenly, their Pope claimed to have had a divine revelation that the humans are supposed to rule over this world. At the same time, the leaders of the four ancient beast clans, which were the most powerful beasts clans of that time, disappeared. Nobody knows where they went or what happened to them, so the power balance in the beast world fell into chaos."
Drake instantly made the connection with what Darth said to him the first time he went out of the array.
'That must have happened right after the gods colluded against the divine beasts clans.'
Arte, seeing Drake thinking, he paused for some seconds and then continued.
"With all of the beasts in confusion, the Pope of the Holy Church started gathering strong supporters, even Kings. Under his leadership, humans began raiding all the beasts territories. At first, we could fight back. But soon, specialized teams and armies appeared with their sole mission to hunt and suppress the four most powerful beast clans.
"We were caught unprepared and after killing most of us, we had to retreat and hide from the world. Within one month, our clan fell from King of the Beasts to merely scared animals."
Drake could see that Arte didn't like talking about the history of his race. Anger and shame were apparent on his face.
"After the four ancient beast clans lost, humans met minimal resistance in conquering most parts of the world. Of course, all the credits went to the Pope of the Holy Church who was being hailed as an apostle of a god and the number of his believers skyrocketed. Currently, there is only a few human countries and areas that have a different belief than them. Therefore, the Holy Church is the supreme ruler here controlling almost every kingdom.
"The Pope at the time stepped down and his son became the next one. Nobody knows what happened to him; some say he died, some say he reached the Fate realm and ascended from this world."
Arte finished his story then waited for Drake to gather his thoughts.
"Your story has solved many questions of mine, so thank you for that, but you have some parts wrong." Drake voiced.
"Oh? What could they be?" Arte joked mockingly; the story came from his clan which is one the four ancient beasts clans that retreated, so he was sure there was nothing wrong with it.
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"There were five ancient beast clans. Not four," said Drake choosing to keep the matter between gods infight to himself.
"This can't be, If another ancient beast clan were existing we would have heard..." then he abruptly stopped.
"Drake Sun, a descendant of Sun Wukong, one of the two last members of the golden monkey beast clan, the fifth divine beast clan," Drake announced.
He looked at Drake with disbelief, his mouth hanging wide open.
"This... How is this possible? I have never heard of something like that. But that would explain the Holy Church chasing you and why the leader told me to pay attention to any unusual beasts...
"What happened with you guys? Nobody had heard anything about you and suddenly you appear thousands of year later?" Arte was clearly confused; he couldn't understand how a fifth divine clan suddenly appeared in the world.
"Unlike your clans, the golden monkey clan was sealed by the humans. We have a more aggressive nature due to our bloodline that the rest of you, so they couldn't leave us be. We have been confined for thousands of years and only broke free a couple of days ago." Drake explained. Arte satisfied his curiosity so he would return that, provided he was losing nothing in the process.
"Is that what the disturbance in the Ki was? But if the Holy Church knew that your seal had been broken, why did they send only a few relative weak members? Since you guys were a powerful clan, there was a very high chance of having extremely strong members." Arte wondered.
"I am not too sure about that myself. The clan left us with two messages before vanishing. I only heard one of them that was telling me to run immediately and that people will come chasing us."
"I am sorry. Then maybe you should listen to the other one, so you can have your questions answered," Arte said.
"Maybe," Drake replied, still reluctant to hear the voice talisman.
Silence fell into the cave, everyone lost in their thoughts, but Drake still had one question unanswered, the one that was eating him up and even though he knew the answer, he had to verify it.
"What is the name of the god they believe in?" Drake asked with a grim voice.
"The Holy Church? Delia, the goddess of balance and life, at least that's what they call her. But in my eyes, there is no balance in this world," Arte answered disgusted.
Killing intent leaked from Drake the moment he heard her name, startling Arte.
"You got a problem with her?" Arte asked carefully still concerned about Drake's killing intent.
Drake couldn't exactly tell him that he has been reincarnated and that he had a personal vendetta against her. So he chose to explain based on the golden-haired monkey's history.
"She was the one responsible for sealing the village and almost destroying our clan. I won't rest until I kill her and destroy everything related to her." Drake's killing intent turned even thicker, to the point it would suffocate someone not cultivating.
It took a moment for him to calm his emotions and when he did, Arte asked him.
"You do know that you are just a Body Refinement cultivator, with no clan or anything, and yet you are telling me you want to, not only go against everyone in this world, but against a God as well?"
Drake didn't need to answer. His determination was evident on his face. One look at him and Arte understood he really believed what he said.
"You are crazy. The craziest person I met..." Arte then started laughing loudly. "But I like it! Haha! As long as you plan on taking down the humans, count me in! At the very least I have to clear the shame and bring back the White Tiger beast clan to his former glory!"
"Both of you are monsters. I am nowhere close to your level. But since you plan to avenge my family, then you have to count me in as well." Diana voiced behind them. She had apparently woken up some time ago. If she hadn't with so much discussion and killing intent around her, then being a cultivator would have been for nothing.
Both of them turned to look at her and even though Drake said nothing, Arte couldn't help explain out loud.
"Good! But you really need to grow stronger faster. You are pretty weak right now."
"I know," she smiled, "but I will definitely catch up to you two."
"Then go cultivate until we leave," Drake said as if he was unable to read the happy mood around him.
Diana nodded and turned around heading deeper into the cave once again, but this time to cultivate.
"I know you care," she muttered when nobody could hear her, but one could see that she was smiling.
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