0018 Unanswered Questions

"The farmers village is the best place for me to rest...

... These missions are always tiring, it sucks...".

Coming out of a forested region, an ordinary peasant stopped in the open area to observe the place, watching intently for a few seconds, he yawned covering his mouth, and wiped a sleepy tear, suddenly, a loud noise resounded in the air, making him look at the sky in doubt.

"Will rain? But the sky is clear...".

He looked for clouds but not finding them, he directed his attention to the direction of the noise from where the wind started to blow, and there in the distant sky, a small black sphere began to form contrasting the dark blue sky and darkening that side of the sky.

"What is it?".

With the wind blowing in his face, he ran up the rock formation and after several seconds, he reached the top of a tree from where he could see the end of the phenomenon happening, the final bang and unrecognizable little dots falling from the sky.

"Shit! It's the direction where Father Alcione is!".

The man's eyes glowed a dark purple like indigo, his entire body emanated a dark purple energy, and then he jumped from the tree falling towards the ground, but during the fall, the dark purple glow of his body faded and his body turned completely black, disappearing into the shadows of the trees.

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"Thomas get up of there fast!".

Sara started to speak louder, as the sound of the men from the church indicated that they were knocking on something, possibly the wooden door trying to open it, and that gave her a chance to speak a little louder without attracting attention.

On the ceiling, the second gray fire body had just formed, and the humanoid this time looked like a grown man and very thin, he seemed to be laughing maniacally as fluid fire came out of his mouth every time he opened his mouth.

Drops of fire began to fall again, and this time the fiery humanoid body was close to Ronan, and as happened to Thomas, the body of fire broke up and fell on Ronan, covering him completely.

The fire in the ceiling calm down again, and Ronan's body began to shake, but the way he was tied up, it was impossible for him to get up or get free.

^"Who are they?"^.

So Sara preferred to remain silent watching what would happen to Ronan, Thomas and the ceiling that could form another humanoid body at any moment, the minutes began to pass and the doubt about who these people are, began to distract hes mind.

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Alicia ducked her head as she entered the corridor, her mind filled with doubts about her mission and filled with remorse about her investigation team, she just wanted to get money to take care of her sister, but now, she was involved in an investigation that put the lives of good people in danger, and all for one reason.

The Envoy's obsession with getting a good performance during the mission to guarantee a promotion, she didn't know him before and doesn't even know anything about his past, just as she couldn't understand his willingness to hunt the 'heretics', but she didn't I would let him do whatever he wanted today.

In a few minutes she reached the group of would-be soldiers trying to lift the wooden door, they didn't have enough strength to open the door, so they looked at the Envoy who was grumpy and saw his eyes glowed with bluish green color.

"Sir Envoy, we are unable to open...".

"Shut up! Everyone be quiet, listen!".

Everyone was silent thinking that the Envoy was going to give them some order, but he was quiet for several seconds, and when one of the soldiers opened his mouth to ask something, they could all hear footsteps coming from ground floor.

Footsteps on one side, footsteps on the other, little by little, many footsteps were heard, despite the sound being low, it showed that there were people around, and that could be good or bad depending on who those people were.

"Listen, we don't know if Father Alcione came looking for us, or if they are reinforcements from the heretics looking for their companions...

... Lets wait a little bit...".

The would-be soldiers held their weapons ready for possible combat but the Envoy calmed them down by making them wait, and so they all stood in the dark corridor looking up in silence.

^"I hope it's the Father with Jenany...

... I'll explain the situation to them, I hope the Father lets them go..."^.

While they waited, Alicia started formulating various conversations and arguments that she could use to convince Alcione, and so, have Jenany's help at the same time, during her mental conversations with herself, she didn't notice the minutes passing, but her thoughts were cut short when a louder noise sounded over their heads.

Something or someone fell on the wooden door, this together with the delay of the people on the ground floor in opening the passage, gave them a confidence that these people would not be part of the group of heretics, after all, if they were part of the group, the door would be one of the first places they could try to open as soon as they arrived.

"Knock on the door...

... Let them find out there are people here and let them clear the way...".

Then two of the would-be soldiers came very close to the door and started punching it, but after several seconds, nothing happened and they stopped and looked at the Envoy for hints.

"Shit! Don't look at me, keep going until they notice, I don't care if it lasts all night, keep going!".

Distressed by the Envoy's bad temper, the men continued beating, but to help their comrades, other would-be soldiers sympathized with their friends and exchanged places with them to let them rest.

Meanwhile the Envoy closed his eyes waiting, the bluish green glow had already faded, and Alicia sat down on the floor to continue to rest and think about possible arguments she would use later.

It didn't take long and soon more noise happened, but this time it sounded like the people upstairs were clearing the way by removing things from above the door, and everyone got ready to see who would be the people opening the door, but soon the people stopped removing the things over the door and with that the Envoy opened his eyes again impatiently.

"Why would they stop getting things out of the way?".

"Sir Envoy, the heretics we left hidden up there, someone might have found them...

... And maybe they told the others that we're here...".

"Heretics huh...

... Push the door up, now it should be enough for all of you to be able to open it... Go!".

The would-be soldiers started pushing again with loud bangs, as soon as they noticed that the door got lighter, six of the would-be soldiers gathered and pushed the door up together, and just like that the cold night air came towards them.

Wasting no time, they went out one by one through the door, the Envoy waited for all the would-be soldiers and followed behind them, Alicia feeling the fresh air, took another deep breath and decided which argument she was going to use to talk to Alcione, then getting up from the floor, she was the last one out the door.

Arriving on the ground floor, the first thing she noticed was the destroyed shed, she looked up seeing the sky outside and then to the sides, to the destroyed boxes, but as soon as she focused her vision on the details of the people around her, she was surprised.

^"Who are they?"^.

People dressed very differently, but even in the difference she could see some similarities, as for example the group closest to the would-be soldiers, looked like some sort of uniform with a mixture of blue and gray, some of them held strange objects in their hands.

Not far away, a group of people of all ages were kneeling in prayer, some were even crying, for a moment she thought they were church people, for the demeanor and passion in the eyes were very similar.

As for the rest, they didn't have many similarities other than that most of them wore some kind of mask covering their mouth and nose, something that the previous group didn't use, and of the first group, only about five did.

"You, give me your sword and follow the heretics...

... You, go tell the Father that we've found an Inheritance from the heretics...

... The rest of you get ready...".

Alicia looked at the Envoy giving orders, she was already tired of him, obviously most of these people were hurt, and it looked like he wanted more unnecessary conflict.

"Looks like this old man wants to die...".

"Yes, him behaving like that with the Envoy, I pity him...".

"You are before the Envoy of our lord god Diore!

Show your respect and get on your knees!".

The low conversation between two would-be soldiers next to her made her glance curiously at the group closest to them, the sight of an old man trying to imitate the Envoy's speech almost made her laugh along with the two would-be soldiers, but his authoritative voice made them serious again.

"Get down on your knees...

Get down on your knees!".

Everyone was amazed at the Envoy's loss of control, he just cut off the old man's head in front of everyone, Alicia who had intended to go against him to try to communicate between the two groups stopped her step in fear, she stood there looking at the man in disbelief.

"All on your knees!".

Pah! Pah! Pah! Pah! Pah!

^"What is it?!^".

Several loud popping sounds sounded, Alicia was startled by the sounds but soon realized that the Envoy was injured, not only she but the would-be soldiers nearby noticed it as well and, without hesitation, they all ran with their swords in hands to face the enemies ahead.

Alicia didn't have much experience with dealing with supernatural things, let alone combat experience, this conflict now, the frightening sounds of pops, the church soldiers falling without even being able to touch the enemies, one of them had his head blown off throwing blood and brains everywhere.

And then the Envoy started killing people on the other side, but in the despair of the enemies she felt tremendous pain, amidst all the confusion of people running and the fight between the two groups, an enemy skill hit her right shoulder, she didn't see anything, just felt the impact followed by the pain, and with that she fell to the ground scared.

^"What kind of skill is this? Really hurts!"^.

Alicia crawled closer to the boxes, and leaned her back against one of the taller boxes, hiding from the conflict going on, she held her bleeding shoulder and tried to peek through the boxes at what was happening, and so she saw the conflict going farther and farther away from her.

^"Yes, that soldier will bring Father and Jenany, I just need to stay here safely and wait..."^.

Everywhere there were people dead or suffering on the verge of death, and the sounds of screaming, suffering, and crying together with popping and crashing noises brought Alicia the meaning of battle, as well as memories of her village being destroyed.

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Underground, a third body of gray fire just formed and came out of the fire bubble, this time, this humanoid is right on top of Sara, it looked like he was looking directly at Sara with his face turned towards her as his body swiveled on the ceiling.

"Ooh no! Not with me!".

Looking up, Sara realized that she would be the next to be hit by one of these fiery humanoids, then quickly she threw herself to the floor and rolled under the stone table beside her, and just in time to hide, the fire rain began to fall from the ceiling again.

Not being hit by any of the fire drops, Sara was relieved thinking she was protected and in a few seconds the humanoid fell apart, but instead of hitting the table above her, the fire leapt directly to the nearest person, Ronan.

"Aaah!". "Ooough!".

As the fire covered Ronan's entire body, he began to scream and his body began to shake even more, it was impossible for Sara to help at the moment, and there was no way for her to know what was happening to him beyond what her eyes could see.

"Someone help?!

Take me out of here!".

She was already completely scared by 'The Light of the Guide', this artifact was too horrendous for her, and so she completely gave up on the idea of ​​keeping the events there a secret and began to scream for help.

Amidst Ronan's cries of agony and Sara's cries for help, Thomas started to move for the first time after he passed out, he put a hand on his head as he tried to get up, seeing this, Sara was happy and stopped screaming for help.

"Thomas! Thomas are you ok?".

Thomas sat up, and from the way he was holding his head, he looked like he was having a bad headache, but Sara didn't care and kept calling out to him trying to make him focus on the moment of danger they were in.

"Thomas! We need to get out of here soon...

You're all bruised and a headache is nothing compared to our current situation!".

"Thomas?

Are you talking to me?".

The girl stopped when she saw Thomas looking at her, her question about her talking to him brought her a frightening foreboding, but before she could say anything else, she realized something even more terrible.

"Ooh shit, what the fuck is this?".

On the ceiling, dozens of fire bubbles began to form, it looked like a hive of insect eggs, and several fiery humanoid bodies took shape from all sides, at this sight, she stared up in horror.