‘Nothing has changed,’ Alhen thought as he walked through the hallway filled with prayers.

  Nuns crouched down, crying and pleading for mercy.

  He looked at them without emotion; these women were full of sin, although he wondered whether they saw it like that.

  ‘I don’t know much about how they worship Lord Oros, or if there are any weird traditions that I am unaware of, but this is too much. I hate religion,’ he thought.

  A nun on the ground turned to look at him, sending him a look that made his body shiver and a cold sweat run down his back.

  Those eyes looked lifeless, so much so, in fact, that he wondered whether something had happened during his absence.

  During his time here before he left, the situation wasn’t this tense.

  The nun on the floor who was staring at him seemed lost in thought, and he saw in real time how those eyes regained their luster.

  She gave off a small gasp of surprise, alerting the other nuns, who looked at her with a bad eye for having interrupted their prayers.

  It took them a few moments to catch what she was looking at.

  Their gazes landed on Alhen, who stood in the middle of the hallway, lost in thought and wondering why everyone’s attention was on him all of a sudden.

  The women started crying with big smiles on their faces.

  Looking closely, they had bruises and cuts all over their bodies. He shook his head and wondered how he had missed it before.

  'These women were beaten, but why?' he wondered.

  For his presence to cause this much of a reaction out of them, it seemed that things had indeed changed, and he knew it wasn’t for the better.

  This behavior wasn’t an isolated case; Alhen decided to keep going forward, and the nuns didn’t dare approach him but stood watching from the side.

  As he navigated through the church, he came across a school of kids following two nuns.

  The kids' conditions looked terrible; it was obvious what they had been through.

  Alhen remembered those moments and looked at them with pity, but he didn’t dwell on the feeling, reminding himself that this world was cruel, and this church even more so.

  Their heads turned to him, and when the first kid saw him, he gasped audibly, being less inconspicuous than the nuns back in the prayer hall.

  The kids, being confused and curious about what he had seen, turned their heads, and their expressions showed something else.

  The nuns looked at him with hope and gratitude, but the kids looked at him with hate-filled eyes.

  All of the pity he felt for the kids was gone in an instant, and he returned a belittling look their way.

  He could see in real time how their bodies got tense and their eyes burned with a flame that seemed inextinguishable.

  He didn’t pay attention to them any longer, passing by their side without saying a word.

  One of the kids, however, couldn’t hold back from looking at him and stuck out his leg to try to trip him.

  Alhen didn’t need to activate his blessing to avoid it; he could see it from a mile away.

  He stopped just before being tripped by the feet, and the nurses looked pale.

  Without thinking, he activated his sign and punched the kid in the face, deforming it without trouble.

  His punch had sent the kid flying to the wall, and if he wasn’t dead yet, he for sure was going to be in a few minutes.

  He clicked his tongue, looking at the aftermath.

  The kid’s teeth were scattered on the ground, and his nose was crooked, clearly broken.

  Alhen’s punch had scraped the skin off his cheek, and now it was bleeding heavily.

  The other kids looked at Alhen with surprise and instinctively took a step back, feeling that if they stayed too close, they would share the same fate as him.

  Alhen took a deep breath and exhaled sharply, trying to breathe out all of his anger and resentment for the world and everyone around him.

  Now that he had taken a breath and calmed down a little, he ignored their shock and continued walking forward into Father Vincent's office.

  The nuns behind him apologized intensely and started beating the half-dead kid on the ground, probably ending his life for good.

  Alhen didn’t care and kept on walking.

  Maybe that’s why he couldn’t notice a dark feeling taking place in his heart. Nothing in the world right now could interrupt his focus.

  He knew that he still wasn’t prepared for meeting Father Vincent; he was not strong enough yet, but destiny seemed to have other plans.

  How Father Vincent would react and what he would do—he was prepared for it all.

  It didn’t matter if he had to fight with all he got; he wouldn’t let himself be thrown around like a dog if the situation required it.

  Without realizing it, he found himself outside the office doors and entered, receiving that fresh wooden smell and landing his eyes on the figure sitting down and writing some papers he had in front of him.

  He looked serious, writing as if his life depended on it, and he wondered why that might be.

  Father Vincent, however, stopped writing and looked at him intently, his face already forming a smile before his gaze was on him.

  “I knew that you were coming. I could sense your presence since you entered the building. I also see that you have gotten stronger.”

  “Very good; everything is going according to plan,” he said.

  “According to plan?” Alhen asked.

  “Hahahaha!” Father Vincent laughed, and Alhen looked at him as if he were looking at a parasite.

  He decided to keep his mouth shut for now, approaching the desk and sitting in the chair in front of him.

  The father kept on laughing until a few seconds after he sat.

  “Would you mind explaining what’s so funny?” Alhen asked.

  “Alhen,” the father began, “I have to say that I am proud of you. I expected to see someone else, but the specimen you are becoming is good; keep doing what you are doing.”

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  Alhen kept his silence, waiting for him to get to the point.

  Father Vincent, seeing that Alhen wasn’t going to say anything, sighed and shook his head with disappointment.

  “You are still a very disobedient child. Of course, you need to be punished for running out of home just when we were going to start having fun with Lord Oros’ second ability.”

  “For now, I decided that participating in the upcoming war would be beneficial to you. I also want you to become cold, to lose all emotion; they are useless and only get in the way,” he said.

  “So, you want me to become cold so I can forget about my promise to kill you? A very original idea indeed,” Alhen responded sarcastically, rolling his eyes as he said it.

  “You are wrong, Alhen,” Father Vincent began.

  “You will understand once you reach a higher level of power. You will simply need to exert control if you want to reach it.”

  “When the time comes, you will open your eyes to it,” he explained.

  Alhen narrowed his eyes on him, thinking about his words carefully.

  ‘If only you knew. I already went through that experience,’ he thought, remembering the siblings, and he wondered what they were up to now.

  He wanted to find them and kill them for what they did to him.

  If there was one thing that he hated more than Father Vincent, it was knowing that he was right, and he had to accept it.

  He already knew that the path to power would require him to remove all unnecessary emotions and devote himself to the path of seeking strength.

  Hearing it coming out of the lips of the man in front of him, however, made him livid.

  His chest started rising and falling unevenly, and that’s when he noticed that he had to calm down.

  Father Vincent didn’t miss this gesture, humming in amusement and resting his head on his palm.

  He leaned forward before standing and gesturing for Alhen to follow him.

  Alhen stood and watched as Father Vincent opened the secret passage in the room and guided him down to where he first got his blessing.

  He remembered the experience vividly, as if it had happened not so long ago.

  The smell increasingly became worse the more they descended, but Alhen kept a strong and unbothered expression, focusing on the path ahead.

  He touched the wall as they descended, feeling the rough texture of the wall threatening to split his skin, but he didn’t mind.

  When they reached the bottom, Father Vincent began speaking.

  “I have a gift for you, Alhen; it is right in front of you. I have been waiting, excited for when you would enter and see the gift I worked so hard on making.

  ‘I don’t like the sound of that. What could he be wanting to show me?’ Alhen thought.

  Looking in front, he could see little because of the lighting, but he noticed a distinct shape in the middle of the ritual circle where he had been baptized for the first time.

  Turning to look at Father Vincent, he deeply examined his expression to see if he could get anything out of him, but the only thing he saw was that stupid grin on his face.

  Alhen activated his essence and made the energy go to his eyes, illuminating his surroundings in his mind, and saw something that shook him to his core.

  ‘T-There’s… no way. Right?…’ Alhen approached, walking, looking at what was in front of him clearly.

  Tears started rolling down his face as he watched his friend, Henry.

  'Henry, you look... dead. It's all my fault; I'm sorry,' he thought.

  His only friend was in front of him, and he could only feel terrible looking at his decomposing body.

  He approached and kneeled beside him.

  The smell coming out of him was horrendous, but he didn’t care.

  That decaying smell reminded him of his sins, his deepest regret, and the cause of his suffering.

  ‘I admit that I didn’t know you very well,’ he began. 'But before you were in my life, the only thing I was worried about was survival.’

  ‘I didn’t see the point of living any further, but you gave me hope.'

  'I cannot even begin to express just how much you helped me in those dark times. Even if it was only for a short period of time, I still enjoyed our time together,’ he said in his mind.

  He had wanted to say those words for a long time, but he had already accepted that he would never see Henry again, except that it wasn’t the case.

  Now, everything wasn’t the same.

  Henry’s neck was almost chopped off, and he could see the decaying flesh.

  He unconsciously gazed at his missing right arm, the same arm that had ended with the person in front of him.

  'I deserve it.'

  Henry's open eyes showed a dull look.

  Alhen took his gaze away for a moment, thinking, ‘I can’t.’

  Tears streamed down his face, landing on the ground and dissipating, just like Henry’s life had done so, all because of him.

  He heard footsteps approaching from behind and had the urge to turn around and cleave his axe in the father’s neck, but held himself back.

  He wasn’t strong enough.

  “I ordered the nuns to take good care of him. Even after two months have passed, he still looks somewhat alive. Do you like my gift?” Father Vincent asked.

  Alhen clenched his fists, resisting the urge to hit him in the face right now. He was the reason they were in this position in the first place.

  He decided to keep silent and keep looking at Henry, taking all the details in.

  Father Vincent didn’t seem bothered, walking forward and standing beside Henry.

  Alhen gave him a bad look that clearly showed his desire for him to leave, but the father didn’t mind.

  “You see, Alhen, I do not like who you are becoming. You are my son, and you are rebellious. Do you know the best way to educate a child who does not behave?”

  He didn’t even let Alhen finish.

  He looked at the down Henry, raised his foot, and just when Alhen understood what was going to happen, he lunged to tackle the father, but he wasn’t fast enough.

  His feet came crashing down on Henry’s face, splattering it on the ground and leaving a mess.

  Alhen’s pupils dilated, and his expression showed pure terror.

  When his body finally tackled Father Vincent, he had no strength, sliding down pitifully to the ground.

  Father Vincent dropped his act, looking at Alhen with a serious expression.

  “You caused this,” the father said, his voice being deep and penetrating.

  “This… Ahhhh!” Alhen screamed at the top of his lungs.

  He rose from the floor, activating his luna signum, and doing everything possible to hit Father Vincent with all his power, but it was useless.

  Father Vincent looked at him as if he were looking at a bug and backhanded him in the face, sending him to the other side of the room and crashing him against the wall.

  The wall cracked alongside his bones.

  He had his Luna Signum activated, which defended him from the hit somewhat, but even that wasn’t enough to shield him from a simple attack from Father Vincent.

  He coughed blood and looked at him with resentment, being helpless as he watched the father take Henry’s remains and start kicking his body over and over again without mercy.

  He tried standing up with all his might, but no matter what he did, it was useless.

  He thought that training with Edith for that short amount of time would maybe shorten the gap in some way, but it seemed that he was still as weak as ever.

  All he could do was try to stand up, but it was more a matter of his capabilities than it was about his willpower.

  Physically, he could not muster any strength and was ultimately left to look at the corpse of his friend being defiled.

  Henry’s body broke; he could hear his bones being snapped and saw his body being thrown around without remorse.

  He had to watch for a few painful minutes as Father Vincent had his fun until he ultimately lost interest and looked at the beaten corpse of Henry on the ground.

  Making what seemed to be the most disgusted expression in the world, he spat on the corpse before retreating deep into the place and out of his sight.

  Alhen couldn’t do much as twitch the muscles on his face.

  His body was thoroughly beaten, and if he deactivated his Luna Signum, he was sure that he would pass out on the spot.

  No matter what, he had to do something, anything, to calm down the rage spreading deep in him.

  After a few seconds, Father Vincent came out with the same people who had aided with his baptism, and they approached Henry’s body with sticks in their hands.

  The sticks had cloth attached to the end of them, and Alhen knew immediately what they were going to use them for.

  They arrived near the body of Henry, and Father Vincent looked at Alhen, making sure that he was watching the show.

  He gave him a gentle smile before gesturing at the men to light up the sticks.

  They did as asked and, in unison, threw their sticks at the fallen Henry, burning him and making a strong flame, which rose and left through some vents in the ceiling.

  “Do you see this, Alhen? This is what happens when you disobey. This is what happens when you try to oppose me. This is what happens when you do not show respect.”

  “Learn from this lesson and become better. As you are right now, you are nothing,” he said.

  ‘I will kill you. I will kill you!’ Alhen screamed in his mind.

  He wanted to get up and torture him, do something, wipe that smile off his face. His body shook without control.

  He lost control of his emotions, and his Luna Signum deactivated, making him slowly close his eyes before losing consciousness.

  Waking up in the nursing bed made unwanted memories fill his brain. He looked beside him and just like he thought, it was Henry’s bed.

  The nurses still placed him in the same spot every time.

  His mind wandered and ended up in that desperate moment where he was unable to do anything against the man he promised to kill, and even let him get away with something far worse.

  He didn’t have the energy to feel mad anymore; he felt something else, some sort of quiet desperation, but he didn’t let that feeling take over him.

  “I will kill him, no doubt,” Alhen said.

  There was no sort of hesitation in his words.

  He truly didn’t doubt, but whether he would make it a reality or not was yet to be seen.

  His brain quickly came up with ways to get stronger, but ultimately, they all ended with him returning to Edith and training under her.

  The problem was that Alaran wasn’t able to cover for him anymore; he would have to give up his safety to help him, and Alhen already owed him a favor.

  ‘I don’t want to bother him anymore. I have to take responsibility for what I do and figure things out myself. Right now, there is a war coming, and I will be taking part in it.’

  ‘If I can use this chance to strengthen myself through battles and energy absorption, it could be a huge help in realizing my goal.’

  Ultimately, realizing that this war could bring him endless benefits, he no longer felt the need to hide from it.

  He had dreaded the moment when he would have to fight in a war that he didn’t care about, but now he saw it as an opportunity.

  What Father Vincent had done was unforgivable, and he was going to make sure to pay back what he did a hundredfold.

  Patreon. Currently, there are 15 advanced chapters total, will make sure to increase that over the week.