Chapter 73 - A Mysterious Man

—Cole POV—

"A word of warning, these people aren't the run of the mill villains all of you have trained to combat. The Church of the Three Heroes is a cult, and they have tricked people into believing that what they are doing is the Will of God.", I informed them with a severe tone, "While most of the followers may be rendered harmless with a small show of strength, they will have devoted followers among them that will do whatever it takes to stop you. They will pretend to be innocent civilians and when you aren't paying attention…they will stab you in the heart without remorse. Keep your head on a swivel and watch your surroundings closely, I don't want to find one of you dead on the street."

Understanding the situation better now, I saw some of the students look at one another with concern. I didn't blame them as cults like this were few and far between in our world. The thought that there were people willing to take their own lives to kill them was something they had never considered before.

"So what I am hearing is, we don't need to hold back against them!", Bakugo snickered with a pleased grin, "Finally, we get to cut loose!"

"Do what you need to do to get the job done, but don't kill anyone.", I ordered as I slammed my fist down on his head, "While I have no qualms about killing, you brats don't need to get blood on your hands. If I get word that you went overboard, Bakugo, I will bash your head in like your mother does on a daily basis."

"What!? Where did you hear that bullshit!?", Bakugo shouted out in both anger and surprise as he rubbed his head.

"Oh didn't I tell you…I have met your mother a few times. Why do you think I am not concerned with smacking you around a bit? Your mother gave me permission to do so if you get out of line.", I snickered with a grin, "I can't for the life of me understand how such a nice woman brought such a foul-mouthed punk into the world. Maybe I should suggest some in-home lessons to help temper you better."

Seeing his face twitch with anger, I wondered if he was more pissed off about me getting to smack him around or if it was because I was bringing his mother into this. While he was staring daggers at me, his classmates were cracking up as this was one of the few times he was the one left speechless. Deciding to let him ponder his situation, I turned to the adults to hand out further instructions.

"My suggestion is that you all split up into smaller groups to hit each location faster. Once you have freed everyone, take them back to the castle where I will be waiting for you. I will use Healing Magic to tend to their injuries and have warm meals ready for them to eat..", I told them, "Be prepared for possible mob encounters as in this country, Demihumans are considered subhuman. Some of the citizens won't take kindly to you freeing them from their bondage."

"Well I will shove their complaints right up their butts!", Mirko spat with a smirk, "Come on, let's get going! I am all fired up now, and need to vent some aggression!"

Splitting themselves up into groups, the teams took off in several directions to maximize their efficiency. Letting out a sigh once they were gone, I hoped that the students didn't get too messed up by what they were going to see today. They hadn't seen hatred like this in Japan, even the disliked Mutant Quirk Users weren't treated nearly this badly because the laws protected them too. In Melromarc, Demihumans had no protection whatsoever and could practically be killed with little repercussions.

"Cole, we have a situation.", Sapphire said breaking my concentration as she ran out of the Church with a panicked look, "We found several children locked up in cages in the basement. They are saying their parents were taken away, we should-"

"Already on it, I found one group just a short time ago in a Storage Shed a few blocks from here. I called in backup and they are striking every location I am aware of at this time.", I informed her, "By the way, how many children did you find by chance?"

"About a dozen of them.", she answered as I heard Ventrice and the children approach, "Most of them were taken away with the Pope, High Priests, and Archbishop. They left the same day Naofumi breached their walls so we missed them by a few days. We didn't find any information about their whereabouts in the papers they left behind."

Cursing our luck, I tried to figure out why they'd take the children over the adults. The kids weren't nearly as strong as the adults so it wasn't like they could do hard manual labor or carry things for them. As I tried to wrap my head around things, Ventrice walked out dragging a Priestess by her hair. Tossing the woman to my feet, it looked like she was about to incinerate the woman out of anger.

"Please heal this little girl.", Ventrice said motioning for a young Cat Girl to come out of the Church.

Nervously walking out into the light, the heavily beaten girl looked at me with a terrified expression. Having had her ears and tail clipped off, the only thing that remained of her racial traits was her cat eyes…or rather cat eye. The other eye was covered up by several layers of bloody bandages so I wasn't sure if she still had it.

"This Holy Woman is responsible for her condition!", Ventrice snarled ready to pour red-hot flames upon her.

"Is she…", I remarked turning toward the woman with a hollowed, blank expression, "Where are the other children? I am not in the mood for games, woman."

Slamming the butt of my spear into her right hand, I crushed it and began grinding it into the pavement. Ordering her to tell me before I worked my way up her arm, she told me to fuck off. Still believing that her God would punish me for my insolence, she tried to frighten me into sparing her life.

"You will burn in Hell for this!", she laughed, "My God will punish you heretic for laying with these animals, and harming his chosen clergymen! He will rain fire and brimstone upon you for hurting me!"

"I highly doubt that because your deity is nothing, but a hoax.", I mocked her as I kicked her in the stomach sending her skipping across the ground, "Go on, I am waiting for my Divine Punishment from them! Call him down now so I can kill him alongside you! Any God that supports crippling and disfiguring children will get no mercy from me!"

Stomping her face into the pavement over and over, I kept berating her stupid ideology. Reviving her when she died, this process continued for a good ten minutes before she finally broke. Pleading for me to stop, she started spilling their plans to me.

"They plan to use the children to power the weapon we stole from Faubrey!!", she shrieked as she covered her face, "The party couldn't take all of them so we left some to die of starvation in the basement!"

"Bullshit, the children don't have enough power to charge it even if you drained every ounce of magic they had!", I refuted ready to start using the butt end of my spear on her face, "Stop wasting my time!"

"I swear it's the truth, our Lord's Champion gave us a spell centuries ago that allows us to convert someone's Life Force into Magical Power!", she screamed as she braced herself for another brush with death, "He gave it to us as a means to help redeem heathens by using their life to further God's plan!"

Stopping myself from killing her again, for now, I was confused as the Gods had been dead for thousands of years now. Asking her for details on what this Champion looked like, she replied that he wore all black armor and used magics they had never seen before to appear before them. Back then they used to siphon the Life Force off heathens and proved fully charged magic crystals to the Champion. Fortunately, this practice died off two centuries ago when the Champion stopped appearing before them.

'Black Armored Man…Cis mentioned meeting someone similar to that in the past too. Could they be the same person?', I thought, "Do you have a painting or image of them?"

"It's in the Pope's Office behind his desk.", she told us.

Bringing the painting to me, Sapphire asked me if I knew who the individual was. Telling her that Cis met a similar person several thousand years ago, Ventrice and Sapphire looked at me with confusion. There were only a few races that could live that long, and most cared little for humans by the time they reached that age. Taking a good look at the painting of the Champion, the unique armor looked vaguely familiar to me.

'Hmm…', I thought struggling to remember my fantasy knowledge, 'I can't place it off the top of my head.'

Stowing the picture in my storage, I asked the Priestess for more information about the attack.

"They are planning to gather more followers and attack the International Conference in two days' time. The plan was to attack the Demihuman Ambassadors, frame the Melromarc Royal Family by dumping the corpses of the Princesses nearby, and wait for a war to break out. While the Royal Family was preoccupied with the War, we'd assassinate them and install a new government run by the Church.", she told us, "With the Church leading the way, heathens would be burned alive at the stake, and we could hunt down every Demihuman in our borders to kill-"

Slamming the butt of my spear into the cobblestone roadway, the surface crumbled beneath the blow as she quickly silenced herself. Seeing no reason keep her alive any longer, I raised my right foot up again and smashed her head through the street and into the sewers with a loud popping sound. All around us people looked on in horror as one of their religious leaders died before their eyes.

"Listen well, the Church of the Three Heroes is nothing but a cult! All of you were taken for fools by them, and led down a path of destruction!", I shouted at those who could hear me, "All of you claim to be enlightened people, yet you act like savages as you treat the Demihumans like animals. Look at this young girl, she is barely three years of age yet you believe this treatment is right!? What has she done to deserve having her parents ripped from her, and to be beaten so grievously by your leaders?"

Giving them a moment to reflect on this, I gave them an ultimatum.

"I have shown you that the God you worship is nothing but a fake! I stand here over the corpse of your Holy Woman, yet I haven't been smited by your God! If he is real, where is he!", I proclaimed, "This is your final warning, do not harm the Demihumans any further! If you don't like them, don't interact with them plain and simple. Any further transgressions against them will be dealt with accordingly by me! For those of you who are too dense to understand…I will kill anyone that harms a Nonhuman again! Spread this around Melromarc, the fates of your ignorant countrymen rest in your hands."

Incinerating the Priestess' body, I walked back to where Ventrice and Sapphire were standing with the children. Using magic to heal them, I made sure that none of them would have any physical scars in the future. Patting the children on the head, they looked up at me with meek smiles on their faces. They weren't 100% sure they could trust me yet, but they were slowly starting to.

"Please escort the children to the Castle…I will finish off the Church Building.", I assured them.

"I think we should stay and watch.", Sapphire refuted as they took the children a short distance away.

Charging the spear with electricity, I waited for it to build to critical mass before rapidly spinning it around. Feeling the air start to rush around me rapidly, I swung the spear in a sweeping downward motion and unleashed a powerful Ion Tornado. Turning the Church into confetti, I leveled the entire area leaving only the Dragon Hourglass standing.

"Now then…let's return to the Castle and wait for the others to come to us.", I suggested as I motioned for them to follow me.