Chapter 1: A new temple?

The holy city of Delphus was in chaos. The ancient city, which housed the main temples of the 7 Divines of Arcroix, was buzzing over an oracle, seven oracles, to be exact. 2 weeks ago, every sentient being recieved an oracle from the 7 Divines.

"A new divinity has been named, prepare a temple in his name and await his descent."

It was the first oracle in over 300 years, but what made it more chaotic was that this is the first time a Divine other than the 7 was recognized. Thus far any other claim of a god was denounced as heretical cults and hunted down by the holy forces of the churches. And yet, here was a new Divine who was not only recognized by the 7, but also had a temple built for its worship.

The pope of each church, devoted as they were to the 7, immediately ordered their forces to clear a district and built a marble temple to fufil the oracle. However, there was no news on the name or Authority of the new Divine, so the temple was barren on the inside with no decorations or statues, for fear of angering the new Divine. There was also no mews of any devotees or priets of the new Divine.

Now as the temple was completed, the city began buzzing in anticipation of the new Divine, it has been 300 years since the last miracle bestowed by a Divine, they had been silent ever since.

Legato was tasked with ensuring the security of the city, he was a Grand Knight of the Divine of War, and was widely recognized as the strongest Blessed currently alive. He led the Silver Legion, the strongest division of Holy Knights from the Divine of War temple, and just for this occasion, the other 6 temples also delegated a division of their own Holy Knights into his command to ensure that nothing went wrong.

Even still, he was stretched thin, the city had seen an influx of people recently. There were the faithless royalty from neighbouring states, who wanted to see if the new church asked for less donations for their divine protection, as nations without a patron god were fair game for any church looking to "cull heretics". There were merchants looking to make a fortune selling their wares as well as looking for opportunities to become an affliated merchant of the new temple, after all blessed merchants were more trusted by the people. Worse of all were the heretics and cultists, he had recieve reports that the heretics were trying to sneak into the city, to claim the temple for their false god and gain some legitamacy.

"I am getting too old for this."

He sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. He was 130 this year, even with the Divine's blessing extending his life, he was starting to move past his prime. Putting down scuffles and rooting out cultist hideouts for the past week had taken its toll on him.

"Sir, there a situation at the new temple!"

One of his subordinates came in and reported.

"What is it?"

"The new temple is glowing!"

Legato rushed out of the building to see a beam of light shining on the new temple, the radiance growing with time.

"Quick, send word to all the patrols to redeploy to the new temple to control the crowd. Do not let the masses rush in!"

Legato ordered before rushing towards the scene.

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At the temple, there was a mass of civilians, crowding at the entrance to the temple, hoping to be the first to get in and maybe gain the new Divine's attention and rise to glory.

Luckily the guards he deployed before hand were keeping the order and pusbing back the people. The first visitors of the temple was obviously reserved for the truly worthy like the 7 popes, and the Holy Knights would not allow the rabble to dirty such a honor.

The beam of light flashed once and released a shockwave that passed harmlessly through the crowd before dissipating. Whatever was happening had finally ended.

Legato arrived just as 7 carraiges carrying each of the respective popes were arriving. He quickly strode to the crowd and bellowed.

"Make way for the popes, I will not repeat myself."

As the crowd attempted to make way, Legato unclipped his sheathed sword from his belt and swung it once, blowing away the people who move too slowly and clearing a path. He did not even look twice at the injured and groaning people who were blown away. The carraiges also ignored the people and drive straight into the temple grounds.

Such was life on Arcroix, and the life of a common man was worth no more than a pebble to those in power. Even those who were injured dared not raise a complaint for fear of being branded a sinner by the churches. Only priests of the Divine of Life stepped off their carrauge to heal the wounded, even then they only paid attention to those who openly wore symbols of their church.

The carraiges all stopped in the open courtyard before the popes stepped out. All of them had a box in their hands.

Unlike what most people thought, the popes did not visit the temple immediately to greet their new counter part. The popes actually held a distaste for the other popes, who in their minds did not worship the right Divine. Instead, each pope had actually recieved a seperate divine oracle from their respective Divines. There was a competition of sorts between the 7 Divines, for their followers to bring the best fruit or herb to the new temple and offer it as a gift, and the best would be reciprocrated with a special elixer. Successfully offering this elixer to their Divine, and they would be blessed by the other 6 Divines along with a boon or treasure from their own. All 7 popes had no intention of letting down their Divine, and they definitely did not want their rivals to gain this advantage over them.