1 Chapter 1 - The Holy Church

On a beautiful day, there was a small town center with several hundred people in attendance with few young children standing in front of them with a small stone beside the children. Front of the small stone, there was a man garbed in a white robe with red cross and gold gemstones embedded into the cross. Without a doubt, this man is a priest of a church - not just any church but legendary "The Holy Church", the continent's main religion and powerhouse, very few forces can stand against them. There are many legends about them fighting off the evil of demons and keeping the purity of the human clean from sins of the demons.

Amongst the children, two of them was whispering and exclaiming. The boy with blonde hair and his eyes was colored like a pair of jades while another boy beside him had black hair and eyes that were dark as a pair of rubies. If it was for the fact that the Church tests infants to ensure that they are not demons, he would definitely have been labeled as one and exiled -- or perhaps even killed in its infancy. Archos and Virion stood in the line impatiently to what possibly be their dreams of becoming heroes to humanity, to fight against evil devils and prevent the spread of the sins! Both youthful boys imagined themselves saving countless people and being amazing demon slayers that they didn't even realize it was their turn to touch the crystal ball. Archos, the boy with blonde hair and jade eyes asked his best friend, Virion "Remind me, what this ball does again? I heard my mom yakking about it but I wasn't awake yet!" Archos pouted slightly while Virion rolled his eyes. "Of course, you weren't listening. It's to test our affinity, dimwit! We're of age now, if we have strong affinity then we might even become paladins and kill demons and fight with the Holy Church!" Virion quietly exclaimed then suddenly pushed Archos "It's your turn, go!"

Archos stumbled across the wooden platform, before glaring at Virion for pushing him. Archos hesitated for a moment, glancing at elderly priest dressed, in what Archos thought was a garish display of clothes but he kept the thoughts to himself as he placed his palm on the small, ordinary-looking orb. The next moment changed his life... Forever. The orb suddenly blazed with a brightness that surely seemed as if the sun was descending onto the land, this startled Archos so much he yanked his hand off the orb, and the brightness immediately withdrew into the orb, appearing as ordinary orb once more. The elderly priest gasped, he almost could not believe his own eyes, he just witnessed a miracle! A birth of hero! He could only say two words: "Perfect. Affinity!"

The elderly priest quickly ran over to Archos and placed his palm on his shoulder. Archos felt warm energy rush through his body he felt bewildered, confused and stunned by sudden events happening so much before hearing the elderly priest exclaim again "What a powerful body! He's surely the one!" Archos wasn't sure what the elderly priest meant but he knew that something amazing happened, maybe he will become one of those fabled paladins of legends? He quickly became excited before the elderly priest kindly guided Archos to another side of the platform, in a kind tone he said to Archos "Child, the Holy Church will foster you with all of our strength! You are surely destined for something great." Archos nodded happily, he was looking forward to starting off his dreams of being the hero as he looked eagerly at Virion - Virion was just always skilled, strong and even have defeated Archos in their "fighting" several times, not only that he's smarter than Archos by several levels too!

Virion was stunned by the display by Archos. He didn't even expect that he would have a perfect affinity. 'Well, shit... I guess I can't tell him.' Before walking toward to the ball with confidence and placed his palm and the ball shined once more, but not at an intensity that Archos emitted but still much more stronger than any of other children. The elderly priest smiled from ear to ear before saying "Good! Good! Good! Two excellent candidates, it seems my trip to here today is not waste of my time after all!" The elderly priest escorted Virion to where Archos is before returning to finish rest of children, some displayed fairly good affinity but not to extend at Archos' level or Virion's level. Still, the other two children that was up to the standards also joined to where the boys are. Finally, the affinity testing was over, now they had to make the biggest choice of their life and perhaps most important one as well. Soon, the four children that were selected by the elderly priest went into a simple wooden church that was managed by a small-time priest of the Holy Church. The elderly priest nodded at the selected children to sit. "Young ones, all of you are of thirteen age, it is time for you to become independent and choose your calling like other children outside - however all of you, especially you two boys - have great affinity and the Holy Church would like to invite all of you to train to become Paladins! I am Senior Priest Hayden and I can promise you that the Holy Church will spare no expense to train all of you to become Paladins, we need each one desperately to fight against the sins that are corrupting the humanity!" Senior Priest Hayden looked at each child before he spoke once more:

"What will be your choice? Stay and live out a common life or... come and serve your people and live an extraordinary life?"

Each child is stunned, with such choice before them... Did they have to think, not long before, one brown-haired boy and one red-haired girl stepped forward and exclaimed at the same time "I'll go with you!" They had cast their choice and fate with the Holy Church.

Only Archos and Virion was silent for a bit before they opened their mouth and said...