14 Ch 13: Ancient Entities (I)

Lucius was reading the books he purchased at the royal capital. This one had connections to his dreams and the skeleton. It was his first solid lead.

Connor was correct about an ancient cathedral housing a bizarre tablet. It had resurfaced many years ago on the continent across the sea. Those who found it was surprised to find books containing the religions teachings.

They believed in one and true God. It reminded him of Christianity, but unlike earth's Christianity, these one were rather unique. They did not condemn others who disbelieved their God or worshiping another as a heretic. Instead, they condemn themselves as unforgivable sinners. Those who believed in the religion would punish themselves in a life of serving the people. 'May you turn away from the path of sin and journey forward to the path of light.' Their God said. However, after only after a few years of serving humanity, they found a fatal error. There were people who wanted their servitude only for themselves. They wanted to take advantage of others kindness. This made them angry. They ignored the empty cries of help and focused solely on helping those that needed it. Those who were ignored had become infuriated.

They spread news about the religion ignoring cries of help. It was clear as they that they did not ignore those that were in need of actual help but you all know how humanity is like. The religion's reputation was tarnished. However, their image was not of importance, making sure humanity was on the right path was. The lies slowly spread with multiple people wanting to control the large amount of believers that had been gained over the years. Yet they couldn't. To become a high ranking believer would take years of bowing their heads and working for the people, there was no other way. Even changing the minds of the believers was impossible, their beliefs were made through self reflection and hope.

After centuries passed and civilisation had began to grow larger and larger, the religion grew larger and larger as well. During one night, it all changed.

It was the age where countries began waging wars with one another. On the night near a small village on a mountain. Several believers were helping the people with their daily lives. They were hungry and freezing since the mountain had a sudden blizzard which chased off the animals down to much warmer area. A believer was helping an old man when a twinkling light flew to the sky. The believer had thought that It was merely an illusion made by his tired mind yet those light multiplied. A horn was heard and the sound of war drums played. This village was also an outpost for a kingdom used for strategically moving through the steep mountains.

The village became a war zone, however, the invaders were winning. They had been able to push through walls and eliminate the village's guards. The enemy commander gathered all civilians and even the believers then tied them up in the center of the village. They pillaged their food and resources, raped the village women, imprisoned the men for labour, and killed all those who resisted. The believers were strong people, strengthen by the mana of the world through a lifetime of hard work and exposure to harsh environments. The enemy commander kindly offered them to join their army, she promised the believers fortune, power, and status. But her temptation was useless for the faith blinded believers. They accepted nothing and begged her to release the people. The believer pressed their foreheads to the ground and begged the commander to release the innocent people. She she had a small feeling of empathy for them, so she release the children. War was war, she knew that and so did the believers. She left the believers alone in the mountain and charge straight to the kingdom's inner borders. She knew very well that the believers would never kill anyone even when they themselves were being attacked. The chances of them stabbing her in the back was zero to none.

The believers at the mountain exerted their strength and energy to keep the children alive. Food and water was non existent yet the believers managed to hunt small prey in the snowy peak. However, they had no medicine to treat the sick and wounded from the last raid. In the end their efforts were to no avail. All of them died from hypothermia, starvation, and sickly diseases. Even without eating, the believers were still able to live after months yet they felt as if they died on that day they failed to protect those children.

They carried each and every corpses back to a church on a nearby city. The people were horrified of the scene. when the believers arrived at the church, the priests began giving the children a proper burial. The believers who failed were kneeling on the alter with bleeding foreheads from slamming their heads on the ground seeking for forgives. This world had no messiah to save the humans from their sins, they had each other to save from their sins. Yet they couldn't stop them from committing it. Thier tears and blood drip from their tears, as the cry of forgiveness echoed through the church. But their cries were not unanswered.

'Cry not, poor child. I am ever forgiving.'

Their God had embraced them with holy light. Their bodies were healed and was imbued with strength. This day was when they truly felt the love of their God. It was also this day that their eyes were opened. They could never satisfy humanity's greed and desires. Instead, they would only save the innocents from violence and suffering. The religion spread forth it's new faith, they accepted such change easily. Their trust and believe on their God and one another were strong. The religion had hit their golden age. They had created a small city on an unknown part of the world. They had strengthened their believers with their power from the holy light and created an army of their own. An army that would end the wars of the current age. Their strength and power were unrivaled. They defeated one army after another without any casualty from both side. Their small city became bigger as refugees began entering. It grew larger and larger until it became the size of a mountain. Their economy was not far behind and became an independent country with only one city. Crime was non existent in this city as everyone were believers of the religion. They only grew larger and larger until they expanded and placed churches and cathedrals on multiple countries and empires. They couldn't resist their proposals. The continent had become peaceful with no sinners or wars. But the religion was no longer the same. They had blood on their hands. It wasn't easy keeping the peace for humanity, they often acted on impulse and blind arrogance. Several attacks were done on the church with unrelenting soldiers which ended on a bloody battle. Their hands were stained, and they choose to stain them more.

They had always thought of themselves as unforgivable sinners. What was difference between then and now? They would rather take the sin of mankind than let everyone suffer punishment. They knew their God would forgive humanity, they care little to no care if they rot in hell. From the peaceful believers now turned iron fisted tyrant. It was certainly a turn of events. However, only a century later. The inhabitants of the other continent had arrived on theirs. They bare peace and friendship which was welcomed by the people and religion. Elves, Dwarves, Trolls, Ogres, Orcs, and Dragons had come in name of peace. But when the monsters taught humanity magic that strengthened thier body, the greedy leaders saw hope. Hope to overtake the religion and control the worlds.

They had kidnapped multiple monsters and taught their army the magic. A joint alliance of several kingdoms and empires charged forwards and started war against the religion. They won against the battle between those inside the churches with their kingdoms and cities. War painted the continent once again. However, not all kingdoms snd empires wanted war. Peace was more... peaceful. Their people had enjoyed such a life without pain and suffering that society had step to the industrial age in just a few years. The religion had won the war with the union of civilisations and monster kingdoms, who partially felt guilty.

The religion stood tall and strong protection humanity from itself and even the worlds natural phenomenon. Until one day, a mushroom cloud appeared. One? two? five? Perhaps a hundred, or a thousand? A disastrous entity they tried to kill had created a nuclear winter forcing life on the world to die. It was unknown whether how long the planet had lived for, however, it was in the scale of hundreds of trillions of years.

After what seemed to have been a million millennia, life had bloomed once again from a sheer miracle. It started progress on civilisation once again until it reach where Lucius stood now. Of course, this was not known nor written in the book. Only the records of battle, achievements, history, and faith of the religion was written. Lucius was ready to read the second book after finishing the first book. He was off to another adventure into the world of words.

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