For a moment, Nick thought he was back in Floria, witnessing a goddess walk the earth, wearing the skin of a man who had dedicated his life to her, and who would be left an almost empty shell.
Then reality asserted itself again, and he was back in Alluria, flying over the rooftops while his brother jumped after him, and Xander left them in the dust.
Things weren’t as bad as he might have feared. There was no ash cloud; the buildings appeared intact, and the people, though shaken by the noise and trembling, were unharmed.
But that could change very quickly because there was a beacon of divine power emanating with enough mana to remind Nick of an actual goddess, and he sincerely doubted whoever that was was doing it without a reason.
Stretching his senses to the max brought a good portion of Alluria into relief, letting him gradually piece things together, especially since the closer he got to the explosion, the more details he could gather from that area.
And the picture forming in his mind was a surprising one. As he’d correctly predicted, the source of the chaos seemed to be Sashara’s temple, the one building in Alluria Nick had done his very best to avoid, but it didn’t appear to be under attack by a major force, as he might have feared.
Instead, a strange madness seemed to take hold of the priests inside, pushing many to attack each other without restraint. In the heart of the chaos, a lone figure struggled to shake off the sickly feeling of curse magic, projecting enough divine power to be seen throughout the city as they battled something.
By the time he arrived, Xander had already taken down many of the frenzied priests, knocking them unconscious with skillful strikes that neutralized the tainted mana surging through their veins, leaving a trail of fallen bodies behind.
As Nick touched down, he couldn’t help but pause briefly to check on the nearest priest. He appeared to be in his twenties and in good health, but that hadn’t mattered at all, as the same divine power he believed in turned against him and drove him into madness.
No, hold on. It’s something else. Someone used divine power as a catalyst to trigger a curse, right inside that deity’s temple. What the hell?
Technically, Nick could create a ritual to do just that if there was no interference, but he knew what Sashara was capable of. He seriously doubted she would allow this to happen, considering her vindictive nature.
That she hadn’t descended, despite this temple reportedly being led by a Bishop, a figure even higher on the totem pole than a Prelate, indicated that something was stopping her.
“What the hell is going on?” Devon asked as he finally reached him, having taken the longer route due to his inability to fly.
“Someone cast a very powerful curse on the temple,” Nick replied grimly.
He was definitely not the friendliest toward religions, but that didn’t mean he wanted something like this to happen.
Together, they hurried through the outer gardens of the temple, which was a similar, but scaled-up, building like Floria’s, with the only difference being that it had three spires reaching high into the sky, rather than just one short one.
Marble with crimson accents greeted them at every turn, while religious iconography of all kinds filled the halls and rooms they passed through.
At one point, they had to slow down as they encountered what looked like an entire classroom of young children, who had been clawing at each other in a frantic frenzy, only to be knocked unconscious by Xander’s passage.
I sincerely doubt it’s that simple, or the older priests would have already dealt with the problem, given the natural resilience granted by the divine power that fills these halls to establish Her domain.
The bodies' trail continued deeper into the temple, going through the main prayer hall, which showed clear signs of a struggle, such as pools of blood and broken furniture.
It was clear that here, the frenzy had been at its peak, and the helpless people caught up in it had been forced into a deadly dance with each other.
Finally, after navigating through the maze-like construction and its seemingly endless spaces, the brothers burst into the central temple where the most sacred ceremonies were held, and only the anointed could enter.
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It was there that they discovered not only Xander but also the source of the divine power spreading across the city and the origin of the frenzy.
An old man, whom Nick was quite sure was Bishop Umlaut, with sagging skin from age and dressed in a humble tunic that could easily make him mistaken for a poor beggar, floated in the air. His eyes burned with fire, and he was surrounded by a halo of golden flames that reminded Nick uncomfortably of Marthas when he’d faced the Fae Queen.
The power he was releasing, even though it was just a side effect of his presence and not an active choice, was what Nick felt all the way in the castle, even through the three layers of wards.
Despite that, it was the very thing the Bishop was battling that made him step back.
It was a twisted, darkened creature. Its skin was cracked, either from the heat or because of the power it had been forced to bear, even though it was clearly not built for it.
Black blood covered it, spewing out of its mouth, nose, ears, and bleeding out of its eyes, and it took Nick several seconds to realize it had once been human.
Golden flames surrounded it at the Bishop’s urging, causing the twisted creature to screech, yet somehow also fueling its power, intensifying its corrupting presence in the ether, and finally explaining the origin of the frenzy.
Sashara’s purifying flames were clearly harming it, likely damaging whatever seed of corruption had created such a twisted creature, but they also allowed it to temporarily match the Bishop, feeding it as much as it hurt it.
Black flames, whose passage tainted and devoured the domain over the building, explained how it was possible that the goddess had let this madness run. They met the golden ones in a screech filled with so much pain and hatred that Nick could feel it rattle his bones. The resulting explosion sent the two combatants crashing to opposite sides, turning much of the sanctified marble into slag.
The one reason the temple still stood was because it had been blessed by faith for at least a century, giving it an existence in the ether that couldn’t be destroyed through mere physical damage, but the black flames spreading everywhere wouldn’t take long to reach it too, and when they did, Nick knew the whole thing would fall apart.
Even beyond the hundreds of deaths he could cause, he realized he couldn’t let that happen. The damage already done to Sashara’s temple was enough to ensure a swift and powerful response, and soon, Alluria would be teeming with red-robed priests.
If the temple were allowed to collapse entirely, it would ignite a holy war. The faith would have its martyrs and wouldn't stop until everyone even remotely connected to this incident was burned at the stake.
Whether that was what the Circle of Pure Souls wanted, he didn’t know. It didn’t matter, either. It simply couldn’t be allowed to pass.
Fortunately, Xander had also arrived at the same time, having just finished disabling almost everyone in the complex and thus preventing another tragedy from happening.
He entered the central nave with slow steps, but his every movement caused the air to shiver with potential, and both fighters instantly turned their attention to him.
“Brother, hast thou come to heed Her call?” the bishop asked, golden flames spilling out of his mouth. Nick doubted the man was fully present, given how deep the taint had taken root in the local ether; however, the fact that he hadn’t attacked them on sight boded well.
The creature that had once been human, on the other hand, screeched in pure anger, clearly not believing they were there to help it.
“This ends now,” Xander’s voice echoed through the chamber, breaking much of the oppressive atmosphere. He unsheathed his sword, revealing a blade of pure silver decorated with a filigree of onyx runes.
It was a more gaudy weapon than Nick expected, but clearly worth it, since Xander wasn’t the type to carry ceremonial swords, especially when he thought he might need to use it.
The mere appearance of the sword caused a ripple to spread through the ether. Nick didn’t understand what it signified, but he suspected it was the potential it possessed that caused it.
A sword so powerful it can alter the currents of a different dimension just by its presence, wielded by a man so skilled he doesn't need a blade to cut.
The duel about to happen probably wouldn't be as interesting as he thought. Nick could tell that the only reason the creature was still alive was that the divine flames kept fueling it, and it wouldn't get that from Xander. No, more likely, it would die after one or two blows once the last of the divine flames had left its system.
He turned around, making for the side exit.
“Where are you going?” he heard his brother whisper-shout, but he didn’t stop.
“He can handle this. We need to catch them,” he said instead, and sped up, leaving the main temple behind and emerging into a side cloister, where a statue of Sashara once stood, and now only a hole in the ground remained.
“Catch who, damnit?!” Devon growled as he joined him, and Nick suppressed a smile, jumping down into the darkness without hesitation.
“The people who did this, of course. That creature there didn’t become what it is now without help, I can tell you that much,” he said once he’d touched down and decided that the tunnel was stable enough to traverse.
“Yeah, that didn’t look very pleasant,” Devon muttered, shivering as a wave of pure hatred washed over them, only to be cut off suddenly.
Nick looked back briefly, wondering if Xander had already handled it, only for the resentment to surge again.
“He’ll probably need to kill it a few times for its entire reserves to deplete,” he muttered, glad he wasn’t the one responsible for that.
That didn’t mean his job was any less important, though. The Circle of Pure Souls had clearly planned everything carefully, preparing a creature strong enough to stop even Xander long enough for them to vanish.
But the fact that they hadn’t collapsed the tunnel behind them, despite it being an easy task, made Nick suspect their activities weren’t finished yet.
The destruction of Sashara’s main temple in western Berea would have been a significant achievement, no doubt, especially given how it was carried out. However, these people didn’t seem like the type to focus on just one goal at once.
Another rumble shook the ground, and Nick eyed the packed-earth ceiling above them with fear. Luckily, it didn’t collapse, but he still quickened his pace, using [Air Step] to cover the distance faster.
It still took them several minutes to cover the entire distance, and when they got close enough, Nick had to close his eyes and sigh as a different domain washed over him, and [Blasphemy] informed him he’d been protected from its influence.
“Come on out, kids,” a voice called, seemingly rough with pain.
Climbing out of the hole took only a second, and before long, Nick found himself in the middle of another praying room, clearly meant for worshiping a different god.
Wave-like motifs, water drops, and the bright blue of the ocean everywhere the eye could see.
They were in another temple, this one dedicated to Ulter, the god of the seas, opposite to Sashara in so many ways. Yet, sharing the same fate, considering the hundred or so bodies piled up in the room.
