Volume 1 Chapter 8 The Saints’ Research Team and Stalling for backup

Alger had started to get suspicious of everyone in Pavv recently; strange things had happened more and more frequently.

He had to protect the orphan from the outside threats, fortunately the rich Mars had been helping take care of the children with his own fortune.

Jack had mysteriously gotten out of his trance, as if he had been forcefully taken out of it by some greater power.

Lynch, now on his two feet, had started testing the limits of his Bone Ring; First of all, he now knew the ring had no effect on other.

He used the Lord’s Legacy Site as his laboratory, it was the perfect place, relatively far from Pavv, soundproofed and nobody had knowledge of it.

Cutting his wrists, stabbing himself, breaking or dislocating his own bones; Jack had done many terrible things to himself as if his mother’s death had made him more suicidal.

The boy had tested a lot of ways to harm himself; he knew the ring could heal pretty much any injuries that weren’t lethal; he hadn’t tried a magical attack yet, he couldn’t ask Father Alger that. The priest would think Jack had become mad.

The quiet town of Pavv was disturbed by a group of priests; they weren’t wearing the same paraphernalia as Father Alger. The group had golden and orange plated armour over their religious clothing.

Amorth had welcomed them with respect he had shown to nobody before but the goddess; these people were the Saints’ Research Team.

Ten years ago, the goddess had sent a revelation about the Saints births. But only one person in the whole clergy was given the blessing of being able to recognize the Saints’ Aura.

And so the Church had created an elite team to go through every single populated area of the continent to find the four saints. The very best of the mortals of the church were dispatched to find those truly blessed by the goddess.

Jack came out of the orphanage the same way as every day expecting to be able to test on the ring yet again but not this time, the research team was stationed in front of the parish. And the Overseer immediately saw Jack’s blessing.

With that the fate of Jack was sealed, they quickly told Father Alger about Jack's uniqueness and how they would take him to the nearest diocese.

Jack wasn’t really able to understand what was going on but when he saw Amorth's proud look, he guessed the church’s people must have been good.

On the same day, the decision was taken; the group was going to leave the town tomorrow.

During the night, Father Alger had received a revelation from the goddess. The vision depicted a blood soaked Mars, killing with a smile wave after wave of people, Alger saw the arrest warrant, and the last thing he saw was Mars mercilessly killing Heather and Christopher in front of their parents.

Coming out of his nightmare, Alger was terrified; he had been fooled by Mars’s gentle smile for ten years.

The dim moonlight was the thing that gave him hope; he wasn’t alone in this town, he could still stop the madman that was Mars.

He rushed from his room to the temporary camp of the research team. He quickly explained his vision to the crew.

They hastily contacted the diocese for support; in the dangerous world that was Emiprusixen, you couldn’t underestimate an enemy even more if the enemy is well known for being hazardous and wicked.

The man receiving the call was startled, the Saints’ Research Team was calling them, and he quickly brought in his superior.

After a short talk, the diocese agreed to send an elite troop to Pavv as quickly as possible.

With that done, the group agreed to extract Jack during the night, leaving behind Alger and half of the research team.

Against Alger good will they couldn’t evacuate the citizens of Pavv without alerting Mars.

At noon, the ceremony started, everyone in Pavv was gathered at the central place, ready to see one of them receive the greatest honour of all.

But the carriage was empty, all a show to lower Mars’s guard.

Mars was indifferent to the ceremony; all it meant was that his task had finished and that he could finally go back to Euthanasia.

However when he left the central place, he was confronted by Alger.

Mars started the conversation: “Well hello Father.”

Alger replied: “Good morning sir, are you proud of our little Jack?”

The warlord told him: “Well shouldn’t we all be?”

The priest nodded before saying: “It is true, we should all be proud of him”

Mars thought for a short amount of time before saying: “You are using simple sentences, you try to hide your stress by slowly talking, this isn’t like you Father.”

The religious leader was taken aback; he didn’t think Mars would see through him so easily.

Mars continued: “It’s a trap! To think I got caught on the very last day. What gave me away? Did I do something overwhelmingly suspicious? Or maybe it was the goddess.”

Amorth did not reply.

Mars said: “So it was the goddess huh.”

Alger started to walk backward before sending a signal with his Chus.

A rain of attacks fell on Mars; the alley had become white from the sheer number of Light Path magical attacks.

The warlord had however used his trusty protective cape to tank all the damage, his hand came out of the unending light and grabbed Alger.

Amorth was thrown into the luminescence, exchanging places with Mars. It instantly killed him as he did not have enough time to react.

The research team’ members started to expose themself; they now had a better shooting angle to hit Mars. Giving away their position would force Mars to defend, stopping him from sending large-scale attacks.

They could not allow Mars to get to a populated area, or he would be able to hide from their attacks.

But it was exactly what Mars was trying to do. With bursts of attacks, both of fire Path and of Light Path, he wasn’t able to progress quickly.

After a tedious walk to the centre of the town, Mars finally took a breather. What he feared the most was the religious zealots starting to fire on the crowd. If that happened he would not be able to flee.

Unfortunately for him that was exactly what the righteous party against him started doing.

-Eryn Gift: Sinners all Atone in the Light.

A gigantic ball of light fell on the already panicked crowd. Mars had to use three quarters of his Chus to protect himself.

-Michael Original: “Harmony of Path” The Shield of, War Path and Light Path.

Mars absorbed some of the Light that was harming him to create his dual path shielding. His Chus was getting depleted at extreme speed and his chances of fleeting were getting slimmer as time passed.

Fire Path attacks were occasionally thrown around by the Church members.

Mars had hidden in one of the still standing houses; the large-scale Light Path attack had killed pretty much everyone and the buildings had crumbled.

His Chus was regenerating too slowly to enter a fight, he needed a plan and this plan had to work or else he was dead.

While he was thinking, a group of differently clothed Church members arrived in the remains of Pavv.

Hyperion Raphael Claudius and his people had arrived. One of the research team members that was free came to greet them.

The woman spoke reverently: “I humbly welcome your Excellency the Second Inquisitor of Light.”

Hyperion replied: “The second legion of the Inquisition was dispatched to eradicate a sinner right?”

The woman replied: “That is right sir; the sinner is currently hiding in the village ruins.”

Hyperion ordered: “Tell your people to get out of the town; I’ll make sure that our foe is eliminated.”

Mars, still hidden, saw the scene from his hiding place; he was using Chus to enhance his senses.

Earlier he couldn’t use this technique because someone could have caught on his Chus emanation and realised he was a magic user, but with the large-scale attack that had blown up Pavv Chus was coming out from everywhere the spell had hit.

Realising the identity of the man, Mars cursed: “For fuck sake, of course they would send a legend-level warrior to take care of me.”

What was once Pavv was once again plunged in a blinding Light, this time the Chus was more refined and way more powerful. Pavv was no more, only a crater was left behind.