Chapter 127 – Searching

"Say Petra... how do you think Charlotte will react to what we're doing?"

While I'm flying us both to the monastery, I can't help but start to wonder about priestess. Even though her religion isn't the same and she's said the priests have misguided views, she never actually wanted harm to come to them. Of course, we're very justified to turn that place into a crater but this still shouldn't turn her into an enemy, right?

As for leaving home, the settlement should be alright without us at least for a little while, it's obvious that the monastery can't be having repeat forces of that size attacking again after such a huge devastating blow but with Penelope moving the mages in and Zeki, Ariza and even the dragon Mute still around, we should be alright.

Just getting to the monastery will take longer than a week and we've already discussed this upcoming plan further. Something new I didn't know is that Petra's infiltrated this place before using that face changing ability she has so it's just a matter if she can remember the interior completely. Keep in mind, this wasn't as much as the spying she did on the empire so stuff like that mecha guy she was clueless on but Petra does at least have some information on the layouts of this place.

Apparently, she even wore a nun's habit when exploring the place, for some reason Petra looking like a sexy nun is a thought I now can't get out my head. I've seen Charlotte wearing the same exact thing yet I've never looked at her like that... I think I'm just simping for Petra again really.

"Honestly Ikarus... think you're worrying a little too much. Priestess did say she likes that place but you underestimate how much she likes you as well. When we first started travelling together, had the slight suspicion she might be into you which is probably why we all were a little on edge at first. That suspicion got destroyed because of the knight very quickly though"

Hehe, so Petra basically just admitted to liking me right at the start as well... wait a second, that's why they didn't get on? Petra thought priestess fancied me?

"Wait, that's the reason you didn't get on in the beginning? I thought the reason was down to them being associated with the empire and her being too preachy, not because you secretly are extremely jealous"

"Heh, whatever you say Ikarus. The empire thing was a consideration but don't think I ever outright said I hated religion. Hers isn't a religion anyway but the one God thing has never made any sense"

I've never been one for religion as well but this world in particular seems to me extremely odd with that sort of thing so to only have one God is maddening. At least with priestess, she does seem to acknowledge there's others but she only chooses to worship Dionysus, the Sierran religion however is not the same.

"So... you seriously reckon she'd be fine with me nuking them all to oblivion simply because she likes me? Priestess really is a weird specimen at times"

Believe it or not, that's actually a compliment rather than me bitching about someone behind their back, I like Charlotte a load too. And before anyone says, only as friends. Even if I weren't one hundred percent loyal to Petra, she really wouldn't be my type.

"Heh, that Lord of hers probably provides her information about us as well Ikarus. It wouldn't surprise me if she knew about our involvement in the capital as well. Of course, I'm only speculating like usual"

Huh... I'd be a fool to take everything Petra says as fact but has Dionysus got a way of watching over us or something? Oh God, that would mean he might've seen me and Petra doing you know what... it's strange that doesn't actually annoy me as much as I thought it would but enough speculation though.

"Let's go get our revenge then... say Petra, you mind giving my back a hug or squeeze? It's awfully cold up there and it might warm you up..."

I mean, it's never as good as a normal hug but a bird's gotta try her luck, am I right? It's obvious what I'm doing as well since it's midday and there's not a cloud in the sky, couldn't think of any other excuse other than lying about coldness.

"Heh, sure my cuddly Ikarus, keep being a tsundere then..."

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"Damn, it's actually beautiful... obviously not as much as the person alongside me though"

"Heh, love you too Ikarus but we should probably focus now"

"Yeah yeah, I know"

Having just arrived a slight distance away from the absolute monstrosity of a building, just laying eyes upon its holy magnificence is astonishing. I'm purposely being obnoxious in my description of the religious building but it is pretty damn impressive though, I've never seen something like this in person even back on Earth.

Think about some of those old European cathedrals with all the beautiful handcrafted architecture, then imagine the largest one ever built and this place might be even bigger! It almost makes me not want to blow it up after we're done looking around but such sentimentality is something I'm not doing. They dared to try and fuck with our town so we'll do the exact same thing to their home. Only we're going to do this leaving nothing but rubble behind...

"Let's both activate invisibility and le-"

"Hang on one second Ikarus... let's just walk in like we're visiting pilgrims first"

Huh? I swear Petra keeps changing her mind on things with this place recently, maybe she's just trying to avoid any further risk but this seems to do the opposite.

"Erm Petra, don't the monastery have our appearances on record? This just seems like an unnecessary risk"

"Probably Ikarus but there's something I need to confirm but would rather not explain right now. I'm thinking most of the people who may recognize us might be underground anyway"

I mean, I've always trusted her so I'm not going to stop now. Even if it's already backfired a little with her predicting when they might attack, I'm never going to hold something like that against Petra.

So instead of activating invisibility, we slowly push open the tall door to enter the monastery. Inside, the place is just as huge and impressive as outside, the carvings and paintings on the ceiling in particular are most impressive. The more I think about it, isn't this more of a cathedral than a monastery? Ah, who cares about the specifics.

"Greetings children, how can this lowly servant help you?"

Once we're inside, an old looking priest greets us despite me still having my head in the clouds. I'm not normally appreciative of art but I feel like I have to try and remember this place otherwise all of this will be lost. I guess we could also take the long approach and slowly take out everyone one by one but by the sounds of it, there could be an entire army of paladins under this place. No, this place must burn unfortunately.

"Heh, you haven't forgotten me already have you kid?"

"Of course I remember you Petra... just keep it down a little since ears are always listening"

Petra just called this old guy kid. Okay, I'm not going to ask but she obviously must've known this guy way back when he was younger since why else would she call him that?

"I'm just here to deliver a quick message... get everyone out of here who holds no hatred of same-sex relationships. This isn't a request but a warning, get as far away as you possibly can right now. There's no longer room for peace"

"Wait, is this woman you're-... oh, you two are the rumoured sinners... Okay, I think I understand what you're getting at..."

Of course, this conversation these two are having is basically being whispered at this point, this hall is pretty empty but there are other priests around off in the distance. However, that quickly changes when this guy decides to end the conversation.

"...So, it was a fine pleasure to tell you two lovely ladies about the Lord's divine will! Please be sure to come and visit this temple again someday!"

While purposely speaking shit, the priest gives Petra a slight wink and goes on his way and so do we. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out he understood what Petra was implying, there's going to be an attack so get everyone out who isn't homophobic. At least that might clear up any guilty conscience we could have about this whole thing but honestly, it wouldn't have made an inch of difference.

"You know, you're so freaking mysterious at times Petra, I'm guessing there's a story between you and that guy but we haven't got the time to discuss it?"

While we're walking out, might as well ask about it a little still being pretty quiet.

"Heh, there's not that much to it Ikarus. Gave him a hand when he was a small child and he just so happened to take up religion, was unsure if he'd still be alive or not since he should be in his one hundred and tens now"

"That guy was past a hundred!? Damn, he didn't look that old"

Anyways, it's enough delaying now. It's time for the heist, then we'll turn this place into a graveyard. This is going to be fun!

"Heh, he is half elf but that's a secret otherwise they'd have never let him join. Shall we do this then Ikarus?"

"Yeah yeah Petra... just leave that door open though"

'Aesa?'

[<Confirmed, -undead fiend- has been activated>]

And just like that, we both exit the monastery going out of sight, then several seconds pass and we enter back inside as invisible as ghosts. Of course, we still make sure to hold hands otherwise we could lose each other. This is all kind of risky and I'm loving it right now.

Slowly walking with Petra through the hall, we come to a set of stairs heading down guarded by two paladins right at the other side of this huge hall in this building. By the looks of it, this is the way down and both of the soldiers are oblivious to us standing two feet in front of them.

'At least we're now in, hopeful Petra knows where they might keep all the expensive shit...'

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(Temporary Perspective Change)

"What do you fucking mean the attack didn't work!? This has to be some sort of prank the priests have conjured up, correct?"

"Your holiness, I've already confirmed the information from multiple sources. The fleet is no more"

Huffing around the underground throne room, I'm not too proud to admit there have been glasses, chalices and bottles smashed from the information that the Inquisitor has given me. Lord forgive me for my outburst but you made me in your image, I've even put on some of the fanciest clothing today expecting to give a positive announcement but that was a waste of time.

What type of terrible coincidence is this? We've been secretly hiding the biggest holy army even known to man to paint the world in a new image and somehow, just somehow it ends up completely being decimated at the first place we seek to cure? What kind of sick joke is this?

The dwarfs, the dirty elves and beasts, even the blasted empire had no clue about what we've been preparing for the last ten years and in the space of a single battle, everything is ruined? What is God's name was the point in all that?

"All those wasted lives and all of them were proven to be unworthy of his protection... where did we go wrong? Don't answer... let me think, just let me think... he must be testing our resolve, right?"

It has to be that, what other reason could this happen? It's obvious the Lord must want us to have to struggle through this. That's got to be it, is it?

"Your holiness... I'd never go against your judgement but couldn't this be... punishment? We didn't misinterpret his will, correct?"

My Inquisitor actually has an interesting point... the island never held any worth for us until we heard about the two sinners in power and the fact they were using holy golden metal to fund their sinful activities. The thought of people of the same gender doing such heinous acts is a personal disgust of mine but the Lord obviously shares those views, right? I'd have never been selected if that wasn't true so where could we have gone wrong?

"Don't speak such blasphemy Inquisitor, surely he would go about punishing us a different way? If he truly wanted to, we'd have been wiped out in a split second"

"Apologies your holiness but we never had any intention to attack those islands until we found out about the sinners. There are thousands of sinners hiding all around the continents we leave unchecked everyday and yet, this happens when we go out of our way to attack these two?"

That's a digesting thought of all those hiding but I can't allow the Inquisitor to lead me astray. Purging the sinners is always a priority but the empire doesn't prosecute them so we're stuck alone in this huge, dirty world that needs cleansing.

"We can speculate all day Inquisitor but it's time to move on and focus on the future... what are we going to do about this?"

"Of course your holiness, forgive me. If you still want this servant's advice, I'd suggest making peace with the sinners until we can regroup and rebuild since we barely have enough paladins to defend the holy building right now"

He really can be very sly at times, it's a good thing he has such unyielding faith to me otherwise the Lord could see that as being slightly sinful. His plan does make sense though.

"You strike up a fair point again, they'd obviously sue for peace too since taking out an entire fleet must've have taken nearly every available force they have. From there, we can rebuild and never allow two heathens to corrupt such fragile minds once again"

It is a brilliant plan really. Sure, we may have to pay them with some relics from the vault as 'reparations' but as long as we suck it up, they'll be nothing but dirt under our boots someday! We'll just have to step up our recruiting campaign from the nearby city even further this time.

"Your holiness, there is still the issue about how they took down paladin Francis. We still haven't received any information about him so is it safe to assume he also died in the battle?"

I cannot believe those sinners and their army took down a piece of holy armour so strong and so powerful, none have ever bested it. Paladin Francis must have fled from his duties since that's the only reasonable explanation anyone could have.

How we even came into possession of that 'mecha' as the dwarfs call it was simply down to a miracle! Hundreds of years ago, a small faction of dwarfs resided in the caves in the mountains close to the monastery and once the volcano erupted obviously down to the Lord's will, they packed up everything to return home leaving works of unfinished miracles. It's a shame that was the only completed one but it's not like we don't at least have one other holy artifact in storage. Those caves are a mystery in their own right and are impossible to navigate now unfortunately.

"*Sigh*... at least we still have Excalibur stored away. The shield of the monastery may have fled from his duties but the sword still remains..."