The Ultimate Devourer

The five churches

As I followed Aratas from behind, I could fully see his wide-armored back.

This type of back was supposed to give out feelings of protection and reliability, but to me, it was a rather cold feeling that was stuck in my chest.

I didn't fully understand, but maybe it was because Aratas only took me in to replace his dead squire, even though he was a paladin, and also a religious man due to his profession, he didn't seem to be caring at all.

The bandits always talked about religion as if it was their salvation. They always said that if they were ever going to give up their bandit ways, they would priests or monks.

But I knew they were only saying those words jokingly.

Once you go down a dark path, you can't stray away from it.

I already did some things that normal people would never think of doing, and I knew this was one of my best opportunities to get some type of backing. It was risky to join a church as a cannibal, but it was also a good defensive front as no one would think a cannibal would join a church.

I sighed and followed Aratas while thinking about the information I had about the five churches that existed on this land.

The bandits didn't have much information about them. They only knew the basics of the basics.

The Church of the Fire and War God Aphratos.

The Church of the Water and Prosperity God Marmmutos

The Church of the Lightning and Combat God Zirkunos.

The Church of the Earth and Stability God Arrns.

And lastly, the Church of Wood and Hunt God Barnos

Each Church had a specific element, and its paladins were able to control those elements. This was all the knowledge the bandits knew and taught me during my time with them.

As we moved through the forest, my ears twitched and I heard the noise of civilization once again. I didn't think we walked for a long time, but had we already reached a village?

Aratas looked behind at my wondering look and said with a small laugh:

"Are you surprised we arrived quickly?"

The man was rather cold at first, but it looked like he was warming up to me quite quickly.

I nodded and asked:

"Did you do something?"

I was not familiar with the magical abilities of the paladins, but Aratas shook his head and said:

"We took a special path created by the Church's cardinal, you are not allowed to divulge this path to anyone, including members of the other four churches, this is the War God's path!"

I nodded at Aratas and looked as serious as possible. Leaking Church secrets was suicide from the way my new teacher looked at me.

Aratas then smiled, and patted my shoulder which made my whole body tremble for a second before he said:

"Welcome to the city of Arajal!"

We left the woods as he said those words. My eyes widened as a gigantic wall appeared in front of my vision. Guards were standing at the left and right sides of a gigantic open gate while they checked upon passersby with their sharp gazes, making sure no one was entering the city to make trouble or do any illegal activities.

We quickly arrived near the gate and both of the guards saluted immediately before saying:

"We welcome back Lord Aratas!"

Their faces were full of respect, then their eyes wandered behind Aratas, seeing me, they were only surprised for a few seconds before they allowed him to enter the city with me.

Aratas walked slowly as I looked around, seeing the tall houses that stretched on as long as my eyes could see.

They were all luxurious houses if they were to be compared to where I previously lived, but the further we walked into the city the bigger the houses got!

Most of the people walking around were coming and going quickly, all looking busy with some sort of task from the way they carried themselves, there were almost no commoners to be talked off, and almost all of the people walking around wore armors or robes.

I widened my eyes as I felt the aura of those people walking around, it did pale comparing it to Aratas's, but they were all quite stronger than me, and some of the people walking around were younger than me by 4-5 years! They were children! Of course, they were a minority, but they still existed!

This made my expression sour as we arrived in front of a gigantic Church, a cross stood proudly at the top of the building, and the Church was painted a deep red color with murals depicting Aphratos fighting his enemies in multiple wars, burning them to cinders and always walking out victorious.

The Church's double doors were closed. Aratas knocked on them and they slowly opened as a beautiful slightly dark-skinned woman with red hair and eyes who wore a black and red nun outfit poked her head out and said:

"Paladin Aratas? Haven't you left with your squire one day ago for training?"

Aratas shook his head, making the nun immediately understand what happened before she looked down at me.

"So I guess this is the child you picked on your way back after the last one left this earthly realm? A little bit older than what you usually bring."

Aratas shook his head and said:

"He might be older, but I could see something from his eyes that made me choose him, this kid had seen quite a lot of death, sometimes talent isn't useful, I couldn't cultivate those youngsters because they had no experience, this time around, I found someone with experience and decent talent, hopefully, he will last longer than the others."

The nun nodded and opened one of the double doors fully, letting both of us enter.

The murals of Aphratos became quite life-like on the inside, and I could see that the Church was sparsely decorated inside, there were no chairs for people who wanted to listen to the sermons of the priests, and most of the people inside the Church stood still with closed eyes and listened quietly.

I looked around for a few seconds before I was dragged by Aratas into a different room where there was a stone inscribed with runes that I couldn't read.

The bandits also taught me basic writing and reading as they thought that I would be useful for dangerous treasure hunting where only I was forced to go to said 'treasure locations.

Fortunately, most of the places where I went weren't as dangerous as speculated, so I kept my life until no more treasure locations existed. Of course, no treasures were found either as these things were only rumors.

I shook my head as I thought about those things.

The nun from before waited for me to get my bearings before she told me:

"Aratas told you about the test we will perform to see if you are worthy to be his squire, right?"

I nodded and asked:

"What does this test consist of?"

The woman looked at the inscribed stone before saying:

"For starters, you will put your hand on this stone here. After that, you will do some basic sword katas that you learned from Aratas before you will be officially accepted as Aratas's squire."

I nodded and put my hand on the stone, getting a very cold sensation from it, the woman nodded and then clicked her fingers, making my hand start hurting as a needle popped out of the stone and stabbed me in the hand, making some blood drop onto the runes.

The runes became beet red as a small person that looked just like I did appear out of the top of the stone.

The runes then scribbled some information in a common language that even I could read:

Age: 15

Blood type: A

Bodily Strength: Middle Squire level

Bloodline: Impure mixed

Those were all of the words that appeared, but the nun changed her expression the moment she saw my bloodline.

Aratas put a finger under his chin and nodded before he said:

"Mirato, I think we can skip the part with katas, don't you think?"

Mirato looked at me with disgusted eyes as she said:

"Aratas, you can't mean you still want to take him as your squire?!"

Aratas shook his head as he placed his hand on Mirato's shoulder before saying:

"That doesn't matter, we are at war with the other four churches. Do you think they won't add this type of person to their ranks?"

Mirato's eyes were trembling as she bit her lip until it bleed before she glared at me and Aratas and said in a soft, almost inaudible voice:

"I can't let our Church fall to the same level as those other four!"