25 Eve

How sad it is to see such a beautiful scene, knowing there is no one left to record it, no one left to take a picture of it, no one left to draw it, no one left to spread the tale of the sheer beauty now in front of us.

The capital of the Slane Theocracy could be seen, its streets filled with crimson blood, and the large cathedral, once a holy site of absolute purity and faith, could be seen adorned with hundreds of human corpses hanging by nooses, its tall spires and gothic architecture perfect for the sadistic art peace.

The windows were once covered in exquisite drawings of religious importance

One would recognize them as the high-ranking Cardinals and officials of the Slane Theocracy, the people meant to allow humanity to thrive were killed by their people, who in their ignorance, considered themselves righteous and just.

It looked like something straight out of a nightmare, something only Demiurge could create, but this was not his creation as much as he wished it was, instead, an androgynous child-like creature with many eyes could be seen, brilliant white wings extended from its back, giving the city a grotesque sense of beauty to anyone looking at it.

The city streets, once filled with life, were now covered in corpses. Men, women, and children alike were slaughtered in the violent takeover of the capital, and none were spared from the mob of enraged people.

The angel looked upon the sight, its many eyes, which seemed relaxed, joyful even, suddenly contracted in horror and fear.

Its breath suddenly choked back as it panicked, its mind seemed to only truly awaken now.

The angel wept, and its shining golden crystal tears fell to the floor, where they shattered a few red flowers bloomed around them, seemingly sucking up the blood to grow.

"W-What have I done...?" Thoth's voice, like hundreds of people speaking at once, seemed whispered, his body language closed up like he was not responsible for the masterpiece in front of him.

Like he didn't kill every single person here.

...

A month earlier, in the city of Lojel, the second-largest city in the Slane Theocracy, a young teenager human woman with blonde hair and black eyes could be seen looking outside her home through a window.

Things have been a bit gloomy recently, her parents are constantly angry at the Cardinals, which made her confused, she was always told how good the Cardinals were, but now, things seem to have changed for the worse.

Her friends were all bummed out about it, so they no longer wanted to hang out, leaving her sitting at home, bored out of her mind.

She is currently wearing a blue dress with flower symbols on the bottom of it, her hair is tied into a ponytail with a thin strand of brown leather.

She, finally sick of the boredom, decided to put her boots on and leave, anything was better than dying of boredom in here.

She started to run towards her friend's house, maybe she could cheer her up since she knew her parents argued often, as she ran, she said hi to the people around, she was known around the city quite well.

The air around her seemed to dance with energy as the people felt their moods improve just by being around her, and she felt happy seeing all of the people around her smile thanks to her.

She arrived at her friend's house, which was a bit smaller than her own, and she knocked on the door.

A woman opened the door after a minute, her black hair was ragged and her eyes had bags below them, she seemed to be very stressed, but she mustered up a polite smile.

"Hello Eve, are you here for Alice?" The woman spoke, her smile felt rather forced, but Eve knew better than to question it.

"Yes! Is she free right now?" Eve was very excited, which troubled the mother a bit, but she nodded anyway.

"Yeah... Just don't get worried for nothing, Alice fell and hit her eye so it's blue now."

"Oh... Okay!" Eve resolved herself to help, she knew a thing or two about healing spells, and she was naturally gifted to heal people, another thing that made her very popular.

Alice left her house soon, her eye was swollen and blue, and though some medicine was applied to it, it still looked fairly fresh and painful.

She had brown hair and her eyes were always closed, not that she needed them considering she was blind.

She is wearing a shirt and pants, significantly uglier than what Eve was wearing, but it would do for just walking outside.

Eve quickly hugged her, happy to see her friend.

As she hugged Alice, her swollen eye seemed to shrink a bit, though it wasn't noticeable enough for anyone to take note of it, Alice still felt a bit better.

"C'mon Ali! I have some money so we can go shopping. Eve dragged her friend with her as the mother watched with a bitter smile.

Alice seemed a bit happier now that she was with her friend, and she laughed a bit as she felt safe again by Eve's side.

"Okay!" Alice shouted back.

The two girls ran back to Eve's house, on the way there, however, the air froze and they both reflexively looked up.

Hovering above the city, a strange creature could be seen, one they could only describe as terrifying and beautiful, all the adults froze up while the two girls did so as well.

Its tens of brilliant white wings stretched from one another, the many eyes seemed to pierce all in the area, not a single thing escaped its vision as the eyes all haphazardly scanned the city in front of them, a single large eye could be seen at the center of it, its pupils a brilliant silver.

Alice immediately fell unconscious as one of the eyes looked directly at her, but Eve remained wide awake, more awake than she had ever been in fact.

Her mind felt alive, she wasn't scared, sure, that thing looked absolutely horrifying, with tens of wings and too many eyes for her to bother counting, but she wasn't scared of it.

In fact, she felt close to it for whatever reason, like looking at a long-lost sibling.

The angel only looked at her for a second before it spoke aloud, its voice reaching every single person in the entire city with perfect clarity no matter their location.

"BE NOT AFRAID." Its voice sounded like millions of people all speaking at once, all of creation seemed condensed within it, Eve couldn't help but realize it didn't have a mouth, making her curiosity spike, though she knew better than to speak now.

The city was dead silent, people felt their minds calm down significantly, but they all stayed still just to be safe, though some parents still ran to their children's side.

The creature spoke again, its voice seemed a lot less imposing, like it was concerned for the mortals below it.

"The Slane Theocracy has failed the Six Gods, your leaders have all fallen to sin, if you wish to repent, you must burn this nation to the ground, and from its ashes, a new nation shall rise!" Its voice seemed passionate, like a partisan reading their manifesto, imagining their prosperous future, its command was absolute to the people here.

"It is up to you if you prioritize your corrupt leaders or the will of the Gods, many have already joined the Six Gods in the righteous crusade."

The angel scanned the city one last time, and with that, it disappeared.

Eve took a deep breath, her eyes glowed slightly with divine radiance before they settled down again, whatever that was, she needed to investigate, her soul commanded it.

The information spread around incredibly quickly, and with help from all of the priests ruling each city, the rebellion was at full strength after a mere week.

Tens of thousands were drafted, though most would have enlisted if they weren't anyway, their zealot minds set aflame by the situation, Eve also joined, her powers as a healer allowed her to get into the army without attracting any suspicion.

It's not every day that an angel appears and asks for your aid, for you to prove yourself in the eyes of the Gods, and considering the deeply fanatic nature of the Slane Theocracy, the people were in open rebellion almost immediately.

Very few decided to stay on the side of the Cardinals, one of those places was the capital, though the people there were not informed of the situation outside, censorship was heavy and even though Thoth could appear and simply tell the people, he chose not to.

The capital would serve as an example to the rest of the Theocracy, to the rest of the world even, that once Thoth gets involved, resistance is meaningless.

'The nation should serve as a great offering to Lord Ainz as well, he will no doubt be pleased.' the angel nodded to itself.

From the perspective of the Cardinals, the situation was a complete disaster, their nation was in open rebellion and they were completely unmatched, a few of them tried to flee, but all were suddenly killed before they could succeed.

New Cardinals stepped up, but they too were immediately corrupted by an unknown force, the Supreme Council gathered, but the meetings were pointless, there was nothing that could be done.

So they gathered all the men they could for a last stand at the capital. If the Theocracy was gonna be wiped from the world, it would go down fighting till the bitter end.

Besides, they still had their relics, they knew for a fact that when the Theocracy was in crisis, "that" would activate.

News of the civil war reached far and wide, the Elf Kingdom immediately pushed deep into Theocracy territory, the scriptures were all in open rebellion or were recalled, meaning the elves were free to rampage with ease, causing chaos and misery to spread even further.

To Eve, however, none of this mattered, for now, she was merely a random healer in a large army, she needed to attract the attention of that being somehow, so she could figure out why she felt so close to it.

The camp was set up at night, and the crackling of the fire was comforting, considering this was the first time the girl was without her parents by her side, she was doing quite well.

Unfortunately, Alice couldn't come with her since she had no skills useful for the army.

Eve's mind was in turmoil, what was that thing? It was an angel no doubt, but none of the angels she had heard of looked like that.

She has always been a curious child, trying to understand the world around her, which got her a lot of praise from her parents, yet now, she was at a loss, nothing prepared her for this kind of thing, the angel seemed to defy all logic.

She sighed, just how was she supposed to get any answers like this?

She suddenly felt something hard touch her shoulder, she turned around and she saw Helios looking at her, the man had a big beard and brown hair which matched his brown eyes, he was very muscular, and his white teeth showed he took good care of his image.

In his hands, there were two mugs filled with some alcohol,

"Well, aren't you looking just a bit troubled hmm?" His voice was rather deep, the man was around 30 years old, so he no longer suffered from his voice cracking like Eve's.

He gave Eve one of the mugs he was holding as he also sat down next to the fire.

"Yeah... First time so far from home." She had first met Helios while they were both signing up to join the crusade, they had never actually talked for more than a few seconds, they just remembered each other's names.

"Right, I get that, but you should at least try to sleep, we are going to reach the meeting point in a week, if you want to give a good first impression, getting good rest is the number one priority." Helios leaned forward closer to the fire as he spoke.

"Yeah yeah I know, no need to babysit me." Eve rolled her eyes, he was speaking exactly like her dad would.

"Ha! Well, aren't you so strong and independent?" Helios took a sip of alcohol.

"You bet, now, if you would excuse me, this lady would like to sulk in peace." With that, Helios took the hint and he got up.

"Right then, have a good night." Helios then left.

Now alone again as she wished, Eve continued to think, though after a few hours, she decided to go to bed.

The tents weren't comfortable, she was basically sleeping on the floor with only a bit of soft material below her, it was small as well, though she should be happy she had her own tent since she was one of the few women in the army.

That night, she dreamt about the angel she saw.

-x-x-x-

Sorry for the lackluster chapter, and for not uploading yesterday, I got pissed at one of my teachers for being an asshole to a friend of mine and I basically told him to F off, so yeah.

I'm gonna be bullied into oblivion by the teachers lol, but hey, WORTH IT!

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