Victor

"I see, but first you must show me that you have the will to bear your revenge."

The Goddess spoke and for some reason I felt like I was shaking hands with the devil.

Pushing the feeling to the back of my mind, I asked.

"What should I do?"

"It's simple, you have to kill your friend Victor."

"But Victor hasn't done anything to me."

"Don't think anything, the Church conspired against you and turned you into the most hated creature on earth. Do you think Victor, with his unwavering faith, disagreed? Don't forget, he is also a traitor, like all members of the clergy."

"But I still don't understand why you want me to kill Victor."

"You must show me that your heart is ready to abandon your old ties for your new mission. The Church is corrupt and must disappear."

"Are you going to use me to kill them?"

"Yes. It's quite simple. Do you think resurrecting you would be free?"

"Ha... Okay, I'll kill the traitor Victor as well."

"Okay, now I will make your soul possess the body of Alexander, another papal guard. Be careful though, his will will not disappear completely, so yours will have to dominate. This is only temporary, then I will give you a new body."

With no time for more questions, the Goddess moves her hand and without a sound I feel my soul crawling back into the world. In a village I see Victor praying in a small chapel.

My body crawls back a few miles and I see the body of Alexander, a tall, athletic man with a sword around his waist. I have met him in life, he is a madman. In his 40s I have seen his stupid beautiful face distorted like the greatest thirst for blood when he kills "heretics".

He is meditating, so it should be easy to possess him.

My consciousness turns to him while his will is weak, meets little resistance and dominates his body.

I stand with Alexander's body in my full power and stretch my limbs.

"The goddess said this is only temporary, it's better to hurry, so I'm going."

As I approach the village, I can see that it is a very simple farming town. Outside there are plots of land with one or two houses around them, while the farmers are moving in a hurry because it is harvest time.

Suddenly, thoughts that are not my own attack me as I see people.

("Disgusting pagans, they claim to believe in the goddess but worship the god of fertility, burn them all.)

Surprised, I look for the source of this thought and realize that it is not really mine, but Alexander's will that has remained in "my" body.

You really are a sick bastard.

Ignoring the intrusive thoughts, I make my way to the chapel, the only building in good shape in the village.

As I approached the double doors, I pushed them gently and saw Victor on his knees, praying.

Victor is a 30 year old man who looks like a mountain and has a wild aura.

His muscles are huge and his constitution is strong. His face is sharp, with an almost born wild expression.

My anger rises when I see him, reinforced by intrusive thoughts.

(You must burn the bastard, like when I burned his son for being a heathen. What beautiful cries the boy had).

It was hard to control myself, my own anger was triggered by Alexander's thoughts plus my own hatred for Victor.

We all knew Alexander hated him, but we didn't know how much.

Tasting my mana and forcing my mind to calm down, I approach Victor.

The mana comes from the soul, so basically I'm almost in full power because of Alexander's strong body.

"Long time without seeing each other, Victor."

Victor turns around and hears my "voice".

"What do you want, Alexander? Have you come to make fun of me being excommunicated?"

Excommunicated? Looking through Alexander's memories, I don't see anything about Victor being excommunicated. I ignore the thought and continue.

"No, I came to take your heart for betraying Ezekiel."

"I didn't betray Ezekiel, you idiot."

"Everyone in the church did."

I unsheathed Alexander's sword, a 103 cm long sword made entirely of a mana-purified steel alloy, and took aim at him.

"I will give you the honor of defending yourself."

Victor looks at me, but says nothing as he stands and picks up his sword. An old sword that his son used in battle against the elves.

I watch him get into position and do not wait any longer as I move my mana-powered body to stab him in the chest where there is no armor.

Victor sees my move and uses a step to the side to avoid it while shifting his weight to cut me with a quick move.

He taught me how to fight, so it's easy to read his movements.

I block the blade that went for my neck. I take his sword with my gauntlet and lock his position. For some reason, I have the feeling that Victor has no will to fight, but that's not important now. He has to die. That's what I want. That's what Decrea wants.

I bring his body closer with my grip and stab him in the stomach with all my strength. The sword finds no resistance even from mana.

What the hell is this? Why doesn't he defend himself?

"Why do you allow yourself to be murdered, Victor?"

"Now you want to talk? Well, you want to kill me for betraying Ezekiel. I don't believe he would betray humanity. I tried everything to find out the truth. It turns out that the Church manipulates everything just for power. When I went to the Pope for an explanation, he made me sign a blood contract not to talk about it, and then he kicked me out of the Papal Guard. I can feel my soul being damaged by the contract, but I don't care. Ezekiel did not deserve this, and at least one person will know that I, Victor von Degos, did not betray him. I didn't defend myself because my life is no longer worth living."

What? Why did Decrea tell me that he also betrayed me?

The thoughts of Alexander started to attack me again, but with my mind shocked, I couldn't resist and words came out of my mouth.

"What a pathetic fool, you lack faith, just like your idiotic son. I will enjoy burning your corpse just as I did the child's."

Victor widened his eyes, but there was nothing he could do. He was stabbed and the blood contract tore his soul apart.

His eyes are still in shock because after all these years he has found out who killed his son and he can't do anything about it.

Suddenly Victor knew that he was living a worthless life, without a legacy, unable to seek justice for his best friend. Without knowing why his son is dead.

The pain of the sword cutting his belly begins to appear.

He didn't even get a warrior's death. He resigned himself to death.

With this last thought, Victor died.