6 |Resign to your fate|

Jian shook his head and came back to reality. He still had a ways to go before he could be a full bishop. The group was now discussing what to do about the pursuing forces. Four of those present wanted to turn back and head another direction in order to throw off the approaching enemies, while some wanted to keep going forward.

"You are insane! go back?! don't you know that the saintess herself has been mobilized to catch us?", John exclaimed.

A female voice responded in a shocked voice and although her face was hidden it was also twisted in deep fear, "What?! "

"Yes, I do not know for what reason, nor for what charge, but the saintess Alice herself has stepped forward to hunt the remains of our branch. If I am correct she might have already killed the rest..", John continued to speculate, while the storm raged on around them. The group had shifted over to standing under a tree regardless of the danger. The winds howled and in the distance as some trees hit the floor with a 'thud' in the distance. Jian was becoming entranced by the sounds of the rain and the serenity that existed in the destructive scene around them. He was drifting further away mentally when his ally from earlier turned to him.

"Do not be lulled by the rain... its the saintess' trademark. She can call in a shit storm like this one to flush out and mentally weaken those she hunts.", He said in order to warn Jian.

"Oh! that was close then. Thanks", Jian said while shaking himself out of his dangerous state of mind, before listening intently to the discussion of the group.

His friend went back to the conversation. Just moments later the groups seemed to have come to a conclusion.

"We can not go back or that saint will have us skinned and liquefied in order to feed the sea guardians", John said and everyone nodded in recognition. Thus, their current course of action seemed to be.. run until they could enter a new territory. They much preferred the Soul Region or as it was known years ago. The Fallen Storm region.

Jian seemed to be reminded that the current four gods were not on good terms by this whole ordeal. Although it was not a small amount to him, ancient history speaks of an age before one thousand or so years ago when there were ten ruling gods and other continents, which held other gods ruled. There should have been ten gods per continent, but after what happened that fateful year the number was cut to just ten true gods of the Helian continent. The other continents like The Seven Stars Continent, The Rose Content, and finally the Hail Continent. All of them sank into the vast ocean over a thousand years ago and as far as anyone knew it was because of a war between gods. The remaining Continent, Helian, became divided and with such a major change, restarted the counter for years. Every record past 1500 years ago was mysteriously destroyed and if anyone went looking for what truly happened, then... May the slaughter force be with them. Having reached this point in his train of thought Jian was interrupted by John's shout.

"We have been here for far too long.. it seems the sea god church is very close. We need to go now!!" he said while turning to leave but paused almost instantly. The whole group noticed his actions because they were ready to follow him. They had traced his vision to the figure he had discovered just a few hundred meters away from them.

Their first thought was, 'this is the end'. In fact, the instant John laid eyes on her, his comrades heard a loud thud. They looked down and there staring back up at them was a severed head with a pair of eyes that contained a flickering flame of life. There was no blood because it was severed just so perfectly.

"John!!" The group exclaimed while jumping back from natural defensive instinct. They seemed ready to fight, however, their expressions were that of resignation and anxiety...