20

Court of the Holy Inquisition of the Catholic Church of May 1431, city of Rouen, France.

The air was heavy with anticipation as the crowd gathered around the towering pyre, their eyes fixated on the young woman bound to the stake. From my vantage point, I watched, a disenchanted observer, harboring a deep disdain for the Church that had propagated such hatred.

Jeanne d'Arc, a symbol of unwavering courage and resilience, stood proudly amidst the flames that would consume her. Her radiant gaze met the eyes of those who had come to witness her demise, an indomitable spirit shining through her visage.

As the executioner's torch neared the dry timber, the flames began to dance hungrily around her. It was in those final moments, engulfed by the inferno, that Jeanne's unwavering faith in God shone brightest. Her voice pierced through the crackling of the fire as she spoke her last words with a conviction that sent chills down my spine.

"Though I perish in the flames, my faith remains unyielding. God has been my constant companion, guiding me through the darkest of times. He has spoken to me, and I have answered His call, seeking only to serve and protect my beloved France."

Jeanne's resolute proclamation echoed across the square, reaching the ears of both believers and skeptics alike. In the face of certain death, she radiated a tranquility that defied comprehension. Her steadfast devotion and unshakeable belief in a higher purpose were a stark contrast to the corruption that had infected the clergy involved in her trial.

The very priest who presided over Jeanne's execution had been tainted by the alluring tendrils of power and manipulation. As I watched him, his eyes darted nervously, unable to meet the gaze of the young woman he had condemned. The fabric of his priestly garb seemed threadbare, a fitting metaphor for the moral decay that lay beneath his revered facade.

While Jeanne embraced the flames with a serene grace, the priest crumbled under the weight of guilt and corruption. His hands, once symbols of solace and absolution, trembled as he performed his sacred duty. In his eyes, I saw not the reflection of a man of God but a distorted figure, a puppet of a distorted institution.

As the flames consumed Joan of Arc, her unyielding faith stood tall, a beacon of hope amidst a world tainted by hypocrisy. Though she perished in that fateful fire, her spirit would live on, inspiring generations to question blind obedience and fight against the manipulation of religion for nefarious purposes.

And as the smoke dissipated, a haunting question lingered in the air: Would we, the spectators, be forever changed by the sight of Jeanne's unwavering faith, or would we remain complacent, allowing the fires of hatred to consume us from within?

After a few moments of silence made by the death of the saint of Orleans, the execution of the witches continues. Next in line for execution was a beautiful woman with white hair and blue eyes.

"Sinner, how do you plead?" The priest stares at the woman.

'Hey Apollyon I'm sad.' Anastasia thinks.

[For what reason? They try to burn you for witchcraft or for refusing the temptations of a priest.] The sword laughs inside her head at the situation.

'Neither of those reasons. I'm sad that I worked so hard in heaven and no one remembers me.'

[You literally weren't exposed to the outside world, except to meet other gods. Wait you also had make that incident in King Solomon's court...]

'Don't remind me of that.'

[You really worthy of tittle of witch or devil hahaha. You seduced one of the Wise King's wives who was a loyal follower of God. How did you hope they would remember you?]

'Solomon might be smart and worship Yahweh, but he was clearly a sinner about lust. The guy had 1000 wives.'

[You have a good point.]

As she mentally debated, she didn't make any expressions except when she smiled upon hearing Apollyon agreeing with her.

"I see that you have no defense, so you are guilty." The priest speaks looking at her.

The priest looked with a tinge of lust at the woman who refused his advances and humiliated him in a public place.

"This heretic used witchcraft to seduce a faithful servant of God. If we do not eliminate it, it will desecrate our beliefs in the our lord."

"Priest, you tell lies in the house of God, no wonder he has abandoned you." Anastasia stares at him with a bored face as if looking at a walking joke.

"God has not abandoned me. He always protects his faithful in our quest to purge all heretics." The priest haughtily responds as he throws a torch to light the fire.

The flames of the pyre licked at the woman accused of witchcraft, as the intense heat seemed to consume her. However, to everyone's astonishment, amidst the inferno, she lifted her head and let out a resounding laughter. Much to the horror of the inquisitors, the woman emerged unscathed from the flames, her body emanating a deep blue aura. With steady steps and a triumphant smile, she walked out of the fire, revealing herself as an unwavering goddess in the face of false accusation. She turns to the main priest and smirks at his shocked face.

"Where is your God now?"

"God is among us." As an automatic reaction he mouths the words he used to preach trying to find some support against his innate fear of this woman.

"So he must be very disappointed by his upbringing to burn his fellow worshippers at the stake." The woman points to the pyre by snapping her fingers, which causes the flames to explode creating images of all the people the Inquisition burned, including the resolute and pure Jeanne D'Arc who had just been burned.

"We just burn witches who desecrate the world created by God." Trembling, the priest tries to explain himself amidst the crowd terrified by the situation and by the guilt of treating executions like a theater.

"Humans... Adam, Lilith and Eve, these were pure and innocent beings who only wanted knowledge. This current generation are nothing but vermins who justify acts of hate with their personal beliefs." She stares at the crowd with a mixture of disappointment and contempt.

"The holy church only seeks to effect the word of God by destroying heretics." The priest is furious at the due criticism and tries to rise up.

The woman raises her hand, squeezing her fist, this causes the gravity of the environment to rise, forcing everyone to kneel and watch the images of the victims on the pyre.

"I see. So it's just a struggle of interests."

"It is human nature to sin, so the church as holder of the word of God has a duty to punish those who practice acts of heresy." The still unrepentant priest tries to justify his acts.

"Humans controlling the word of God? That's as hilarious as the idea of you believing you could correctly interpret what he meant. Yahweh never intended his creation to self-destruct, he even spared devils and fallen angels by banishing them rather than exterminating them."

"Witch, how dare you profane the name of God! Filthy beings must be purged from the face of the earth. Demon, be purified by the glory of the Holy Lord." The priest lifts the crucifix pointing it towards Anastasia, who just laughs at the scene. She walks calmly over to the kneeling priest who is holding up the crucifix.

"Behold the crucifix." She takes the crucifix from the priest's hand. "What does it symbolize? The church's pallid incompetence."

"Witch, how dare you mock our sacred simbol. We humans constantly struggle to carry out God's will and you make fun of us using your witchcraft."

"Here we are alive In a battle without end caused by human arrogance. But he is... gone." Anastasia let some tears fall as she remembers her friend.

"God will punish you for being evil, he will protect me as one of his faithful ones." The priest looks arrogantly in her direction, still believing in his false doctrine.

"God will not protect any of you. He is dead! The proof of that is that I can do this with impunity..."

Anastasia conjures a curse of insects that crawl around the priest's body. Simultaneously the flames of the pyre become black flames whose interior features a pair of crimson eyes.

A voice echoes in her head. [Woman, you're just taking out your frustration on these stupid humans. Your rage will not bring your friend back.]

She ignore the voice and simply continues to give punishment to false believers. She conjures the physical form of the Apollyon sword form and from it makes a horizontal slash of black flames. These flames were summoned with her magic with a condition, they only burn those who do not truly repent of their sins and bad choices.

Most of the people situated in the Rouen church were burned by the flames, including the Priest covered by a swarm of insects who was one of whom the flame never failed burning him voraciously. There were only 8 survivors of the incident, 7 were children in the 4-8 years age group and the last one was the lady who was in charge of the orphanage in the area.

She felt a little guilty leaving them with nothing, so she cast a blessing of good luck and protection on the eight humans as well as creating an entire residence full of gold inside to help them.

'I think they can manage with that.'

[You gave them a fucking mansion full of gold, even a noble of this era would be jealous.]

'I need to compensate them somehow after all I cut off their family, but technically they were guilty.'

[So be it, sometimes I still don't understand your way of thinking.]

After burning the sinners Anastasia still wielding Apollyon walked away from the place. From that day forward, the incident that followed Jeanne D'Arc's execution was known in two different ways depending on the listener. Some believed it was God's Punishment for burning his pure saint and others thought it was a devil's revenge for killing the woman he tempted.

Some angels and devils came to investigate the incident but found no clue as to the culprit. With that, several more years passed until the next appearance of the goddess of magic.