Chapter 16 - The holy book

"H-Hello? I-Is anyone here?"

Inside a dilapidated building a mature soft voice echoed as a woman stepped inside the barely lit room. On her sides a few benches stretched onto an altar that was a bit more elevated. In the back of the building, a beautiful statue of a woman stood, naturally illuminated by the sunlight that seeped through the holes in the ceiling.

Her gaze stood for a few minutes in the statue, such was its beauty, it could not be explained solely with mortal words nor comprehended through a sinner's eyes. It was only when the light entering the church started turning orange that she noticed her weeping eyes and hurriedly wiped them.

This whole time not a single person entered the building but she still didn't give up and sat in one of the benches, silently gazing at the figure represented in stone.

After a while she heard the door behind her opening followed by footsteps until a woman was at her side. Her attire was entirely white adorned with golden and blue linings. Pure and untainted by the ugliness of the world.

"Welcome, I would offer you my assistance…" Her gaze lingered in her tear stained face and sparkling eyes "… But it seems you no longer need it."

The woman's eyes widened and she slowly got up. Muttering a low 'thank you' she left the church where she would be coming every day from now on.

Smiling gently, she did not bother to chase her and simply approached the statue, carefully kneeling at its feet.

"My goddess, it seems another tainted soul has recognized your grace. I ask that you watch over her."

In the end, there was no need to try and convert the weeping woman, for all those who lay eyes on the figure of the goddess shall recognize her grace. And all those who know true grace will be saved by her.

…

Evienne stood in her study looking at the map in the table in front of her. After careful consideration the noble had accepted her offer and after a few months of preparation they were ready to put their plan in action.

As Diana was now heavily pregnant, more than normal, Evienne doesn't let her leave the room. She even went as far as spreading the colony through a lot more cities to bring here the best doctors they could find.

Unlike the other people that came here to live the doctors were more like Danny, here on a paid job and would leave when it ended. Except that Danny did not pretend to leave, after all she had all her research done here and this place was advancing to a technological level unprecedented in this continent.

After revising their plan she left the town and met with her 'army' that had stationed itself in front og the forest.

Their plan was simple, from a time back the members of the colony appeared more frequently in the edges of the forest until eventually they attacked the capital's walls with the objective of getting the emperor to organize a raid in this place to kill what they thought was a overpopulation of monsters.

This way a large part of the imperial army stationed in the capital would be moved outside, and while the colony held them back their people on the inside would seize the throne. Nothing overcomplicated but it would have to be done fast and preferentially without killing many soldiers.

That is why Evienne didn't move the strongest members but the ones that were more terrorizing.

Danger Noodle, otherwise known as little snake, was curled up on the side, looking like a small mountain, with the slime on top of him. Arachne was also present but she herself wasn't that scary, what was scary was the human sized hairy spiders that were her offsprings. Fully black, with stripes that ranged on various colours, representing their specialties.

Along with the stupendous number of ants were bees that were the size of a human child. Every bee was on the ground since whenever they flew together their wings would make sounds that were super loud. The number of bees wasn't very big since their size was too big for a lot of them to comfortably live in the forest.

Hiding high in the clouds was the once small water dog. In a few months since he reached the ocean his size grew so big that he could be confused with a small island. Once Evienne brought him through metamorphosis, giving him a mana core, his body changed to be more aerodynamic, and he naturally got the ability to fly.

But these were not the true horrors of Evienne's army.

Close to her was a figure that had such strange shape that it was difficult to describe. Dark body that constantly seemed to be ejecting smoke, making it even more difficult to see its figure. Glowing purple eyes and mouths filled with sharp teeth covered its body. To walk it seemed to use a mass of tentacles giving its horrid appearance an even scarier atmosphere.

Evienne's first born. The one that was born when she was still inexperienced and also the one that was most unstable. The colony rarely saw it, always hiding deep in the nest, its only visitor being its mother.

A creature so horrid that most of the other children were afraid of it. However, loved by Evienne just as much as she loved the others.

And thus the woman read:

'For if the goddess can look at such abyssal horror with such loving gaze. Who are we, weak sinners, to not love one another as much as she loves it?'

'We, who are all her children, how could we commit such sin? How could we prosecute members of our race in name of mental demons when the mother loves even the demons themselves? So, let us love one another, let us help our brethren, just as the Lord of the Wood loves and helps every single one of us.'

- The Book of the Goat on 'The whisperer in darkness'