A group of holy knights could be seen going through the city. Leading the group was Sara and just behind her was Nathaniel. They just returned from their little mission and were going back to the cathedral belonging to the Church of Purity. 'This is just insane' Everyone looked cheerful and occasional chatter could be heard. Of course, Nate was an exception since what he experienced in just four days since he first met Sara could easily classify as traumatic. That experience taught him something however, the fact that this world was brutal. 'I need to get stronger otherwise I will be forced to spend more time with those psychos' His determination to get powerful was growing by the second he spent with the knights but other more negative and dark emotions grew as well and because of this he felt happy to finally see their destination. The cathedral gave a holy and an impressive feeling but Nathaniel only felt disgust when he looked at it. For him this place was filled with crazy ex
Inside the emperor's office three people could be seen, two of them were seated and one was not. The Grand Priest was obviously the one standing and he was hoping for an answer to his previous question from either Nate or the emperor Julius. They both however just looked at him expressionless. "I am sorry for walking in like that. I can understand your frustration so please forgive me" Cornelius noticing the awkwardness decided to apologize. 'Everyone here is just a bad egg I guess' Nate thought so as he heard the apology nevertheless, he put on his fake happy smile. "No need to apologize. It's my fault for not going to you first, knowing how much you worry about me" Saying this he stood up from his chair. "Actually, the emperor and I were already finishing our talk. Why don't we have a walk and I will share what I experienced with you?" "Oh? That's a great idea, let's do that" Both Nate and the priest bowed slightly to the emperor and they left together to have a 'friendly'
A week passed. Nathaniel was currently walking through the city. This time without any company. 'It's nice to not be watched over for a change' He finally put his foot down and fought for some freedom and although there was opposition, he got that much with the support from Cornelius and the emperor agreeing after some 'small talk' and few empty promises. 'I wish I could enjoy it more but alas duty calls. I can't put it off anymore...' The duty Nathaniel was thinking of was his 'redemption' which was nothing more than another mission that once again involved the Church of Purity and Its Grand Master. Together they would travel towards the city of Tristam and investigate the rumours about the demon worshippers. He obviously was unhappy about meeting the 'crazy b*tch' and working with her again but he also was additionally agitated by the fact that he was already close to his breakthrough but had to go on what Nate deemed a stupid mission. 'Well, it's not that bad, I guess... With
Nathaniel could be seen cultivating inside a small tent. His current mana could be compared to a glass filled with water that was close to overflowing. He was currently on a verge of reaching the fourth awakening! 'That's enough I guess' Strangely though he decided against reaching that realm. 'With this I should be able to advance even in the middle of a fight. Haha' His thinking was simple. He wanted to hide his strength and shock the potential opponent in a crucial moment of the fight. He even imagined himself as the main character of a novel that was in a losing fight but suddenly advanced with the power of 'friendship' and overcoming the difficulty. However, he suddenly decided against it. 'Scratch that. I always disliked that cheap trope and I still have that thing going for me' He had a mood swing and with that he advanced to the realm that many mages cried over casually as if it was nothing. Others had to spend at least two decades learning magic while being talented eno
City of Tristam... It was located to the north of Constantinople, but couldn't be considered nowhere near as large and passed to people as rural. The population dwindled around ten thousand and the only thing that makes the city stand out a bit is its beautiful, natural landscape. It was constructed close to the lake and the water surrounds the city walls with the exception of the eastern side where the city gate was located. Tristam was of no strategic importance and was small but it still would be very hard to siege it. An army would have no way of cutting the supply since it was near a lake and could by resupplied with local ships, on top of that there was only one side of the wall that could even be assaulted by the soldiers. Sadly, they were facing no army but a cult of demon worshipers... *** A group of holy knights could be seen entering the city of Tristam. Sara was of course leading the party with Nathaniel just behind her. They were both stunned by what they saw upon
Nathaniel woke up quite early. He wanted to do a lot so he did not waste time. He went down the stairs and was slightly surprised to see that Sara was talking with some stranger. The person who she was talking to was a middle aged man who wore some simple leather armour. His expression could tell that he was not bringing good news and Sara did not look too happy while he spoke. Nate approached her only when she was done and the man left. "What's up?" "What's up!? Tsk... That guy who I just talked with is a city guard and he was kind enough to report to me that one of my knights was found dead close to twenty minutes ago..." Nate didn't look too surprised. "Oh? What happened to him?" "Cultists, most likely. From what I gathered he was ambushed when he, for whatever unknown reason, left the tavern for a walk. F*cking moron! I would kill him myself if I could for being so stupid!" 'Hmm... so my initial guess about their strategy seems to be right...' "Where there any witnesses? I
In the dark alley Nathaniel was standing over a small, young girl. She looked no older than twelve. Her pitch-black, messy hair was long enough to reach the ground and that maybe shouldn't be thought of as special considering the fact that she was currently kneeling and looking at her hands covered with her own blood. The clothes that she was wearing were torn. Her body was full of bruises, scratches and cuts, not to mention she looked malnourished. "You okay kid?" Nathaniel asked a very stupid question, nevertheless that caused the girl to finally look up. Her eyes were completely devoid of emotion and Nate could see his own reflection on them. That sight seemed to have finally soften his heart a little. He raised his arm over her head and chanted some spell. A green light appeared that seemed to nourish her body. Her wounds quickly disappeared and some colour returned to her dry face. 'I don't trust myself with healing her directly with my chant less magic but that spell I remem
On the western side of the city, in a place where not many people lived there located was a church that seemed to be long abandoned by its owners. The church was small but built of proper stone and although the time was not kind to it the building still gave an impressive and holy feeling. However, the inside of the church was the complete opposite and it definitely was not empty despite people believing it to be so. The first thing a person would notice upon entering would be that the air felt strangely different compared to the outside. Evil and twisted would be the perfect words to describe it. The whole place gave a feeling of dread. "Everything is going according to our plan Cult Leader. They still have no idea where we are and killing them one by one should by quite fun. Hahaha!" "Exactly! That b*tch of a Grand Master thinks that we operate from the outside of the city and has no clue that we practically control the entire city from the shadows! I would love to see her cute
The night was calm and Ethan was sleeping peacefully in his room. Nothing yet indicated the tragedy that was to come but for some reason he suddenly woke up. Sweat covered his face and he looked to be terrified by something.“A nightmare?”He grabbed his head and tried to recall what made him so scared but no matter how hard he tried he failed to do so. All he could remember was that he felt intense fear.“Forget it”After calming down a bit he decided to just go back to sleep but as hard as he tried, he couldn’t and soon a more natural cause made him leave the house. The village was way too poor to afford toilets so a nice tree often had to do even if it was the middle of the night.“Why is so cold?”Ethan complained as he was finishing up his business. He hugged himself as a way warm up as he walked back towards the house. However he stopped as he noticed his father, mother and his siblings running in a panic towards the shed. He was confused as to what was going on but his instinct
City of Tristam was reduced to ruin but not many people knew of that yet, after all only a couple days passed since the massacre. Even the nobles from nearby territories had no clue what was going on since they were preoccupied with demons coming to their land and by no means were they peaceful. Simply put no manpower was available to check on the city that was at the heart of the invasion. However, all of that did not matter to the people from the village called Eran.Eran is located to the east of Tristam and although it is only two days of travel away from the fallen city the village by what could only be called a miracle remained peaceful. Most of the people were ignorant as to what was happening since no noble was kind enough to inform them regularly. All they knew was that some cultists summoned demons but had no idea of the scale of the issue. For them at most those recent events were something to chat about during daily work. Some were worried about this but most did not as wo
The situation inside the church did not change much since Nate left with the only difference being that the cultists were now seated instead of standing. They were all quiet as if waiting for something. “We are back” Some noise returned to the church after Nathaniel and Vincent came back from the outside and after a quick explanation that everything went as planned the vampire hurried to the front and Nate tried to follow him but was caught by Elie who was seated at the front. “Sit here” She pointed to the spot next to her and Nathaniel did not think much of it and sat next to her but he quickly came to regret it as she instantly glued herself to his arm. “Tsk...” He simply sneered and decided to ignore her for now. He was in no mood to deal with that kind of stuff and he was more interested in what Vincent wanted from him. “I see that not many of us are left...” The Cult Leader took a look at the remaining cultists. He counted less than forty people whereas yesterday they were
Nathaniel stood over the lifeless corpse of Sara. There was no intense fighting between the two and everything ended with just one blow. Sara was already close to dying so it’s not that surprising however her determination to kill was shown when she somehow managed let her strike through but luckily all that left only a cut on Nate’s right cheek where as his attack killed her. It was clear who was the winner in that exchange. “Is it over?” Nate touched his face and wiped the blood flowing from his fresh wound and like a red pill the reality of what he did hit him when he looked at his hand covered with blood. ‘What did I just do?’ He grabbed his head as if he had a sudden headache and his breathing got heavy. ‘I wanted to kill her, right? I hated her, right? She had to die, right?’ He then looked around frantically and only just now realized that the city was practically reduced to dust. ‘I caused all that?’ All he saw was rubble and only occasional fire illuminated the now dar
“Huh? Why aren’t you two saying anything?”Nathaniel acted as if confused.“Tsk...”Sara sneered as a response while the demon chose to stay silent. Nate seeing their reactions decided to focus his attention on the wounded Grand Master.“Oh? Did I upset you? Did I do something wrong? Perhaps your God is angry with me? Should I apologize to her?”“Do not speak of the Goddess so lightly! *Cough* *Cough*”Nate angered Sara to the point she coughed up blood. Her internal wounds played the most part in this but Nathaniel’s smirk only grew and grew at what he considered his accomplishment. It was clear that he enjoyed this very much.“So, I shouldn’t apologize then? What do you recommend I do then?”“Burn in hell sinner! Ugh! *Cough* *Cough* *Cough* *Cough*”Sara’s injuries did not get better because of her anger and she collapsed onto the ground. She was barely holding herself up, half-kneeling. Still, her eyes full of fury did not leave Nate out of sight.“Sigh...”When Nathaniel looked a
"Nathaniel?" Sara looked confused at first but her expression quickly turned cold. She took a simple look and instantly knew that Nate betrayed her. The church was filled with cultists and they all quietly stood on the side as if their greatest enemy did not just enter. A vampire that appeared to be their leader did not even flinch when she kicked her way in, similarly the red-haired woman just stared at Nathaniel as if her eyes were glued to him, she did not even acknowledge Sara's presence. Nate was standing at the centre of them all with folded arms and the tall demon towered behind him. It was quite obvious who was responsible for everything. "How could you? Do you even comprehend the crime you just committed? You violated the law of a God!" Nathaniel stared at her with a face full of disgust. "Tsk... why do you even bother?" He waved his arm and the high demon although displeased followed the obvious order. He rushed at her with full force and intention to kill. "DIE!"
Nathaniel was standing at the centre of the church. He was busy directing the harnessed soul energy into the summoning array. The amount of focus required to do so was not a joke. Sweat and fatigue could be seen on his face. He was doing it for over an hour after all.“Tsk... It better be worth it. How much longer?”“We are almost done”Standing behind Nate was Vincent. He was overseeing everything and making sure everything went as planned.“Easy for you to say”“Just look there and stop complaining!”Vincent was slightly irritated by Nathaniel’s nagging and pointed at the middle of the formation. There a small fissure in space could be seen. It was visibly growing in size.“Finally! He sure likes to take his time”Nathaniel seemed motivated by this and focused even more on directing the energy. He was lacking just a tiny bit to finish it though.“Goddam it! Can’t they hurr-”He wanted to complain about the cultists not doing their job but was interrupted mid-sentence by a loud explo
Madness. Tristam became a city of madness... The entire city looked as if hell descended. Houses, shops, churches, everything flammable was on fire and the night looked as bright as a day. From the sky the view of the burning city looked so beautiful even the roman emperor Nero wouldn't dare compare it to Rome's great fire. However, the closer to the city the more its beauty turned to horror. The once calm streets of Tristam now overflowed with rivers of crimson blood. Parents were killing their families and children ran with knifes as if they were toys. Some laughed, some had dull expressions but all killed each other without reason nor any hesitation. Of course, not everyone was mind controlled but even they were forced to kill in order to defend themselves. Some formed groups, some barricaded themselves in their houses and hid from the 'lunatics'. Not a lot of 'sane' people were left though. In just the first hour of this massacre the population of the city was reduced to less th
City of Tristam had a certain beauty that only a small city could have. The atmosphere was welcoming and everything seemed to go its own slow way. There was no hurry nor anything big happening. Everything was always peaceful and calm or at least that was the case till recently. The city centre and its small market could be called the heart of the city. Since Tristam was so small most people supplied themselves there. Everyone that desired new clothing, food or any other oddities went to that exact same place. Nobody expected the tragedy that came to them so suddenly on this seemingly tranquil market. It all started with a thief being punished and then with fire... a sea of fire. Nobody really knew what happened there for certain but some rumours spread nonetheless. Some blamed the cultists, some thought that the thief was cursed or something of that calibre. Tristam was small and everyone heard at least one rumour of what happened there but the most popular rumour was that a demon a