BXBX NOVEL Chapter 50 50: The Church
In the distance from where Stella was playing with the children, from the slightly ajar door, the dark elf priestess was watching her.
"A succubus, a creature of darkness, is harmlessly playing with children? How odd..."
\'I will check her just in case.\'
A strange white light illuminated her body and hand, flickered with wave-like patterns and fading.
"Strange... "Detect Evil" and "Detect alignment" doesn\'t point to her being evil at all...."
When the dark elf used to detect evil in Stella, instead of reacting, it just fizzled; this meant that Stella was not an evil creature or had an evil mind.
Since this happened, Fei\'lan felt she needed to make sure and cast a third spell as spiralling green lights began to revolve around her body; a slight sense of dizziness filled her body after using three spells in succession as her mana began to plummet.
The final spell that Fei\'lan cast was "Detect Threat" to give the caster a vague idea of how dangerous the person was because this last one showed that once again, despite being a being of shadow and darkness, they are also linked to lust and depravity.
Stella wasn\'t a threat, nor triggered any of the usual things a succubus would.
\'What a strange succubus.... what about the man? He... Males cannot be good!\'
Alex was oblivious as he began walking towards Stella, listening to the old man McAlister\'s advice, his face filled with a smile, knowing that Eien would be upgraded before the end of their private period.
He wanted to check the Church, the item store, the inn and that strange portal. He wanted to know what it did and why it existed.
"Ah, Alex! You finally came to get me~ these kids are so cute!" Stella pouted as a student\'s voice called the children inside for lunch.
"Come, children; it\'s time for dinner! Don\'t make Bishop Grey wait too long, or he\'ll start another sermon; he loves those so much!" The beautiful dark elven priestess stood close to the church doors, desperately hiding her terror and fear of the man beside Stella.
"Ah! It\'s Sister Lanlan!" A little girl shouted before hugging Stella\'s wings and rushing off to the dark elf\'s side. "See you against Sister Stellan!" Her missing teeth caused her to mispronounce her name, but it was cute, and Stella just waved and smiled as the kids began to dash away.
"Hehe, see you again, Sister Stellan~ big brother, don\'t make big sister cry, or we will beat you up!"
A small kid with buck teeth and blonde hair pointed at Alex, causing him to feel on the spot; pointing to himself before smiling at the kid ruffling his hair.
"Stupid kid, I\'ll treat her V-e-r-y well!"
"Haha! Good!"
A small slither of mana began to leave from the top of Fei\'lan\'s fingers and eyes, a little drop of blood coming from her nose.
The children swarmed around her and pulled on her bright white habit, almost revealing her scarred chest and wounded flesh. Her face became one of terror and fear as she began to drag the children inside, her back covered in a cold sweat as the mere sight of Alex caused her almost to piss herself.
\'He\'s too fearsome! Why do the prime gods allow such a fiend to enter our sanctuary!?\'
"I must warn bishop Grey...!" Fei\'lan whispered to herself with a grim face.
"Sister Lan?"
"Sister Lanlan, do you need to pee?"
"Oh, shush! Let\'s go get your lunch, okay?" Fei\'lan replied to the kids.
After a while, she took the children to feed before fleeing to her secret chambers, forced to change her habit and underwear.
The moment she cast those spells on Alexander, her body trembled; she urinated at the chaotic and terrifying energy that came from that man.
It was not that he was a threat now; her spell would tap into the divine, using the Prime God power a small fraction to detect the will, nature and threat of another living being below the demi-god stage.
She could crush him now if allowed to attack him; however, when those thoughts entered her mind, an old man\'s voice scolded her for being too judgmental and locked her mana for 24 hours, thus being a normal woman at the moment.
Fei\'lan walked to her old desk with many burn marks, cracks and lines to show how long it had been used; the faint imprint of various people writing and penmanship filled the desk as she took out a yellowish piece of paper and began to write a letter addressed to Bishop Grey, titled.
- Person of interest, a person of great danger: Alexander Damien Faust.
\'Dire threat, great evil, Chaotic natured... That man... Alexander..... he is dangerous! Just like those men!\'
Meanwhile, Alex was walking around to the front entrance of the Church, wondering what this place could offer for that old man to insist they visit here first; he noticed most adventurers would come to this place before leaving in the portal or visit her then go to the inn with a strange symbol beside it.
\'I should have asked what the symbol meant...\' Alex lamented as they pushed into the large brown double doors; the church walls were more like a cathedral, with massive white stones making up most of the wall; not a spec of dirt seemed to touch them as if magic.
"Hey Alex, did you know we can explore new worlds?" Stella clutched his hand tightly before pulling him to look in her direction. She looked at him with gleaming blue eyes and an excited smile before flapping her black wings to show her excitement.
\'New worlds?\'
"You mean.... actual new worlds, like in those novels with the dense eastern protagonists that go to a strange world and become super strong?"
Stella pouted before tapping his chest with a soft thump; she didn\'t want him to go in that direction, "well, the idea is the same, but apparently, those worlds are harsh, and most people never return, so there is no becoming super strong... But the kids said those that returned seemed to glow and get stronger and more baaaan! With thicker arms!" Stella chirped as she tried to show her muscles but failed.
Alex took a moment. They continued walking while Alex wanted to eat a banana for some reason.
Alex stepped into the Church and was immediately struck by the sense of wonder and awe that filled the air. The walls were adorned with intricate paintings and carvings depicting fantastical creatures and epic battles. The light from the stained glass windows bathed the space in a soft, ethereal glow, casting shadows that danced on the stone floor.
The adventurers that filled the Church seemed to move with purpose, their armour and weapons glinting in the candlelight. Adventurers bustled about the space, their armour clanking and weapons clattering as they rushed to and fro.
Some were adorned in bright silks and flowing robes, while others wore leather armour studded with steel. They moved purposefully, darting into side rooms and emerging moments later with satisfied smiles.
Alex couldn\'t help but feel curious about their rush and the side rooms they entered and emerged from with satisfied smiles.
The side rooms were simple yet functional, each containing a small altar dedicated to a different deity, altars adorned with offerings of gold coins, shimmering gems, and rare artefacts, all left by the adventurers as tokens of thanks for their recent victories.
The Church remained silent, but its walls seemed to reverberate with the power of the gods, lending strength and courage to those who sought their aid.
Alex watched as they exited the Church; the adventurers breathed a sigh of relief, their faces glowing with satisfaction, now walking with renewed purpose, ready to continue their quests and defeat the evils threatening their world.
\'Wow, they looked so happy after entering those rooms; I wonder what happened inside.\'
"Excuse me, might you be visiting for the first time?" A gentle male\'s voice sounded, his head shaved with a shimmering head. It wasn\'t the old bishop from before they entered but a normal priest in his black robes and a strange sign on his neck; it wasn\'t the cross that Alex was used to.
"Ah, well, to be honest, yes, we are new to the village and didn\'t want to intrude too much..."
Stella took the lead; her soft voice stunned the priest, expecting the visitors to be arrogant and violent like most new people.
After suffering various setbacks, losing most of their friends and loved ones or destroying their planet would cause them to become mellow and fit in with the rest.
This was the Forsaken Village, after all.
\'Since she was polite, even the male beside her was just a little menacing to look at; he didn\'t do anything wrong. Let\'s help them get a job; if they remember the Church as a point of positivity, then we might avoid any conflict!\'
"Hello, visitors from the new star; my name is Paolo, and I serve the Prime God: Deneb, the old man who forms the barrier around this village and the first to have lost his homeworld to the devouring beasts who claim to be gods."
A sense of bitterness came to form his lips as Paolo looked at the pair; he then pointed to a small empty pew and motioned for them to sit so he could help them.
"I\'m Stella; this is my.... uhm... Alex! He looks mean, but if you don\'t attack him, he\'s super nice!"
\'So this girl that is filled with a more holy and divine air than most people to claim to be the son of god. The man beside her is her, Alex? does that mean husband... Well, they do suit each other! Perhaps goddess Dibella must have had a hand in their match!\'
Alex and Stella nodded to the priest before sitting on the bench; the wood was strangely warm, like a heated cushion and didn\'t hurt to sit on; both looked towards the priest. Alex didn\'t speak because he found that Stella got a better reaction; his voice was rough and sounded like a thug starting the conflict and sarcastic when speaking softly.
"Give me a moment; I can tell from once being in your position that you must use that "Status" screen those damned evil gods use to show your current attributes and skills, right?"
The pair nodded and felt a sense of crisis when he mentioned being in the same position, Alex wanted him to be deliberate, but the priest was too fast. Paolo bowed to them with some strange salute as his hands swirled in a sphere before pointing to the sky.
"May the Prime Gods bless you!"
"I will quickly go and find a spare Job Sphere which will allow you to choose a job; strangely, you were not forced into a horrible job by the evil god... Most other travellers are given a random job and teleported to a random city."
"Did that not happen to you? I can see you are shocked."
This news shocked Stella and Alex, wondering why their time differed as they shook their heads in sync.
"Well, we can discuss that later; first, a job is the most important. Those systems and attributes that those evil gods distribute are not your own; some of the foolish warriors who believed themselves to be superior found that without taking a new job in this safe zone...."
Paolo looked at them both seriously, his face looking grave before his lips opened slowly, a slight ringing as the town bell began to ring, its deep, macabre tone causing the words to be even more shocking.
"You lose everything in the second wave if you do not find a safe zone and change your job once upon the start of the second wave. Those evil fiends will strip you of everything, the ability to level, all the attributes you ground, reducing you to 1, and then all skills and items given will vanish... But in return, all zombies and monsters will more than double...!"
Alex was stunned, but it only lasted a moment, while Stella thought of her mother and wanted to quickly get home and tell her, \'what if mother thinks it\'s a joke? Or the maids and knights stop her from leaving... I have to go, Alex... Will you come with me? Will he... What am I to him?\'
While Stells began to worry, he looked at Paolo, who once again bowed to them with a bitter smile as he was a person that didn\'t choose a job and was forever locked to having 1 attribute in all stats and had no way to gain strength.
"I will go get those job spheres; take some time to think about what I spoke about; remember, you won\'t even be able to take a new job or gain attributes from the dimensional quests."
Paolo\'s back turned to them, leaving more questions than answers as Alex began to contemplate just how big this situation was; his heart was calm despite the chaos his mind was undergoing, the willpower stat of his dropping by 4 in the past few minutes of speaking.
\'I must bring all my women, the vesta and friends here... Mother too... Sarah, Amy... Claire!\'