CH-4

A beautiful, misty morning somewhere in Northumbria, with moisture in the air.

"Why did we have to buy so many things just to come to this empty old church? I don't recall seeing it near where we live... Which part of the land is this today?"

Brida asked, annoyed.

There were tools made to help with burning, such as small dry planks of wood, an oil flask, and matchsticks in the heavy bags she could easily carry.

Her character had calmed down a lot as her body got stronger, and she built confidence, but she was tired of Osbert taking her around in strange places every day, mostly to train.

It had been several months since the day he first exposed his abilities to her.

Osbert responded,

"I have received a revelation from the god of Saxons and the church. Brida, I now know where my powers come from. We came here today to vindicate my faith and build upon it."

"First, put all the tools inside, and then follow me outside... I will demonstrate the power differential between the gods you and I were forced to worship and the true and only one."

Brida looked stunned and scowled, with doubt and a derisive chuckle,

"What? Is this some new game or training?"

She didn't think that Osbert was being serious.

Osbert replied, 

"It is not a game… Do I look like I want to joke this morning? I'm about to renounce completely on Odin and the gods of the Danes; I will have you do the same starting today."

"There will be no more compelling you and I to worship false deities and fallen angels. Today, either you and I die hapless and foolish, or we enter into the eternal loving arms of our true Lord Father."

Before dying, he was well-versed in religions and knew just about everything there was to know. Especially on Christianity.

He hadn't yet begun to meditate on scripture in depth, though. Especially not in a Danish household... He would do this once in Wessex.

Brida stuttered in confusion, shock, and bewilderment as she realized Osbert was genuinely serious.

Her mouth eventually recovered enough to speak after convulsing, gasping in stupefaction.

She had become much more beautiful, as the Essence of Osbert was quite surprising in many ways.

Many ways.

In fact, there seemed to be no limit to how much prettier Brida could grow.

However, she already had an 8 out of 10 beauty rating.

She said, her eyes widening to a sharp, threatening stare at Osbert, 

"What? Are you serious? No, I will not allow you to harangue Odin and our gods with such wickedness! I'm not sure what you want to do, but if you don't want to ruin our lives, you should stop right now!"

She was a firm believer in bad luck and didn't want Osbert to plague and ruin them with the curses of the gods of the Danes.

Aside from that, she believed strongly and seriously in them; she had been raised to devote herself to them. She didn't want Osbert to give them up for a Saxon god she had come to regard as a hoax.

Osbert didn't have the time to talk gibberish back and forth with her, he said, leading the way outside the small, desolate church, 

"It doesn't matter what you think or want, Brida. Your fears are irrelevant to me and my correct beliefs... Today, unless you subscribe to the idea that I am superior to the gods we were forced to love and honor, you will discover that they are not who you think they are and have nothing to do with the powers I gained."

Once he was outside, he waited for her.

She didn't take long to come out too, this time only her bow and quivers of arrow on her like usual. Those were on her back.

With a bigger scowl on her very pretty face, she said, 

"What manner of heinous perfidy do you hope to bring upon us here, Osbert? You should really stop commiserating with whatever awful nonsense this is while you can..."

Her expression on her face, as well as the way she walked out of the building, suggested that she had a bad premonition about what was going to ensue.

Nonetheless, it was noticeable how she used "we" rather than "you." Brida was a selfless, trustworthy woman. She loved and trusted her best friend enough to stay and suffer with him through whatever terrible thing he wanted to do. As long as she remained by his side as usual.

Osbert smiled inside, but he continued to act tough outside.

He said, 

"According to the revelation I received from my God, no harm will come to me as long as I act to defend my faith and his name. Today we are not just coming here to solidify my faith in him and abandon the gods of the Norse people... I have come to denigrate all pagan gods other than the true and only Saxon god."

"..."

Brida was speechless, and even more terrified. 

Her face went blue from fear and shock.

However, Osbert did not give her enough time to keep dissuading and persuade him otherwise.

He said, 

"Take out your arrows and shoot me with them. You will notice the difference between what happens when I choose to defend my true God and the ones you believe in."

They had both grown stronger in recent months, but Brida was acutely aware that he was not invincible or immune to arrows.

Brida was stunned and agitated, exclaiming, 

"You want me to shoot you?"

Her voice was laced with worry, a great worry.

Osbert nodded and said, 

"Just shoot at my feet; you know I heal quickly, so there is no need to worry."

The change was big.

He now had the stamina to heal those types of injuries as many times as he needed in a day.

"..."

Brida did not appear happy or impatient to do such a thing. But when she realized that it was only shooting at his lower body, she stopped hesitating.

She was getting ready with her bow and arrows when Osbert shouted some reminders,

"First, please avoid my crotch area. Just because I can heal does not mean I want to be shot there… Second, before you begin, I need to make some extra arrangements."

"I need you to understand without room for later doubts that the gods you believe in are powerless compared to the real one."

"You're still talking this nonsense… Hmm?"

Brida was perplexed at first, but she soon understood, a massive scowl growing and unexpected surprise etched on her face as things progressed into new challenge phases and tests over the next hour.

XX

Osbert hadn't come empty-handed, nor empty-bladdered for that matter…

Pee and shit, filthy stuff, went down.

Osbert had brought effigies, small wood sculptures, and other pagan items, all of which he needed to profane, disrespect the gods Brida worshiped in the most villainous and abominable ways.

Some of the desecrating ways proved to be particularly gross and disgusting.

He figured that simply screaming to profess his faith and loudly denouncing his old one wouldn't be enough to persuade Brida to accept the idea.

He completely trampled on, wounded and traumatized his best friend's core beliefs in the course of an hour.

The final phase involved leaving him alone inside the church and having Brida try to burn it. Naturally, it failed when Osbert prayed to the Saxon god aloud. Not that he needed to do so, but he added some theatrics.

When Osbert prayed and praised the Norse gods, the church was successfully set on fire and burned down.

A long distance away.

After so many tests, bleeding ones for the ones she felt would go well, Brida's mental state was turned upside down.

She looked at the burning, smoking church, her face apprehensive and anxious, unable or rather still a bit unwilling to accept the truth she witnessed best.

"Osbert… Are you certain that those powerful abilities are not derived from our gods? How is this even possible?"

"Are there any other miraculously blessed men like you in the Saxon Church? It's too frightening if there are..."

Her best friend responded to her pensive and worried murmurs,

"Those powers are unquestionably derived from the Saxon God. You saw it for yourself..."

"And yes, I should be the only one like this, at least that's what my dreams have been hinting at."

There were plenty of bloodstains and holes on his clothes, but there were no lingering signs of injuries on the naked spots of his body.

Brida swallowed and said, 

"That is good if that is the case. That is very good."

Her gaze could not leave the scene where all the heinous things had occurred in the last hour. Her mental state was disrupted, and she had a lot to process and consider.

Brida enjoyed her paganism, but she was more practical and preferred things with real-world applications. Osbert knew exactly how to get her to change her mind. He was the agent of change, and it made no difference if the rest of the clergy and church were clowns in comparison... His difference was too stark and contrasted for Brida to believe that some minor pagan witchcraft held more significance than what he represented.

In fact, Osbert had nothing against witchcraft, but the first step was to influence Brida to accept the Saxon god.

The subsequent steps to make her less pure-minded and be ready to work with some code-bending in her mind could be taken later.

Because yes, although she was completely trustworthy, Brida's flaw was that she was too pure and incorruptible, and she lacked a mind that could be tainted with filth…

Sometimes it was impractical.

She sucked at politics, for instance.

Internal or external.

Osbert sighed and took a glance at her relaxing and charmingly cute face, which had improved dramatically as it had been beautified lately.

They returned home after spending more time admiring the beautiful fire.

XX

Osbert was cruel, but he disliked hidden problems, particularly those that he could easily resolve before leaving for Wessex.

That day arrived when the story's plot was supposed to begin to move forward. That exact same day.

At night.

When Osbert was tending the horses in the morning, his adoptive father, old Ragnar, came to have that talk... Young Ragnar had already left for Ireland for quite some time.

Old Ragnar made the proposal that Osbert marry Brida. 

From that point Osbert knew what day it was…

He followed his plan and let Old Ragnar and his father Ravn perish in the fire.

Upon the dawn of the next day, Kjartan, his son, and his bandit-like hireling men were perplexed at this point.

Of course, not everything went as envisioned or scheduled for them, due to Osbert's prep work for a full day.

The arrogant, dumb, and lustful one-eyed Svein approached his father with spit from Thyra on his face, which he had deliciously licked.

He said, 

"Father, we searched the entire house, but there are only two casualties... We found and roped up Thyra, but we can't find her mother and the two slaves."

Thyra was sitting in sobs, cries, and hatred not far away when the son arrived to report to his father at dawn. Her body was tied up like a prisoner with ropes.

She had spat in Svein's face when he came to taunt her, lust after her, and insult her.

Kjartan said, drinking wine while seated on a cut tree stump, 

"Order the men to keep up the search for a while; they can't be far away and will most likely return if they went on business or an errand."

He didn't seem too concerned that they hadn't been found; he had exacted his vengeance on Earl Ragnar, which was undoubtedly the most important to him.

Osbert and Brida were watching everything from a cluttered patch of leafless trees that hid them. Sigrid was moved to a safe location for the time being, and they would teleport there later.

Brida asked with a frown, 

"What are Kjartan and Svein doing here? Look at the state of the house and Thyra!"

She began to get agitated after becoming aware of what had most likely occurred.

The estate and the house were in disarray; fortunately, Thyra had not been violated, only treated rudely.

Brida was very unpleasantly surprised because, of course, Osbert had not informed her of this upcoming event in advance. 

She didn't even know about Sigrid. They'd spent the night somewhere else. Unlike in the story, they did not get busy that way yet...

Osbert said to his best friend, the inventory ready to act up, 

"Don't be too loud, Brida."

"I am too lazy to deal with this scum on my own... If you run out of arrows, I will hand them to you. Assassinate anyone near or on their way to Thyra. If things get out of control, I'll carry on with the rest."

The mindset guided the assassination plan, which was devoid of flamboyance and grandiosity.

Osbert was a future pope; why would he get his hands dirty if it was unnecessary?

Flamboyance was only required for church matters and its deceptive practices.

In battle, there was no distinction between pope, priest, and non-pope.

Only survival or death.

There was neither dishonor nor honor.

On top of that, having an inventory and an archer best friend was too appealing, simplifying a number of minor, small-scale fights.

Especially in a medieval era.

Osbert felt that it was time to put into practice what he had been teaching Brida, training her for, for the past few months. He wasn't concerned that she would fail him; even if she did, he could bring the hostage-like Thyra back to life.