Level 0 Master

Within the arena, followers recognized God’s power and fell to their knees singing praises.

“It is a believer’s mandatory responsibility to attend the weekly meeting! Not showing up is considered unfaithful! If you are unfaithful, your punishment will not be light in hell!”

Azika turned towards the crimson great priest, Nerth, who raised his hand in compliance, and crimson fire whipped around the sinner’s body. Absolute faith.

With unquestioning faith, the priests never forgave the unfaithful who went against God’s absolute will.

“Kuhaaack!”

All of the man’s skin roasted within the fire. Humans found a burnt finger painful. Those watching gasped at imagining the pain being experienced.

The priests knew exactly where a human’s pain threshold lay, a threshold where the brain fails to recognize pain after it crosses a certain stage. Using that knowledge, a warm light of healing regenerates the body, and the body burns once more: punished and healed. The torture would be without end; the screams would never cease.

Before the onslaught of pain, a living creature’s instinct -even as the mind fails- is to keep screaming.

“Hurts… hurts… hurt… Kuahhhhack!”

Being healed brought brief relief; the screams resumed with the disciplining. The people saw what punishment awaited them if they disobeyed the priests’ rules and went to hell.

Leaving the man to his torture, the other great priests scanned the remaining prisoners.

An Irain elder shed tears of sadness before their watchful eyes. The others were given such severe retribution for their sins, she was bound to be tortured even more cruelly.

She had gone against a strict rule regarding food when she fed forbidden fruit to a dying child to save his life. The village child had fallen ill, and she had remembered her grandmother’s story of eating the fruit to heal illness.

She pitied the child and had fed him the fruit secretly… but was found out. Now she would surely be punished.

The white priest’s shouts echoed around the arena:

“We give you your punishment with a heart of love! May this suffering be engraved in your very bones!”

The light exuded out of him and healed every prisoner simultaneously. To heal everyone at once was the ability of a person with God’s trust. But benevolent power could also be turned into the power of punishment.

“For them to repent their sins, place your love into hitting them to death! Pick up your stones!”

In fear, the people followed the order. Stones rained upon the old woman, who felt her body being fractured. Gasps escaped her mouth as each and every hit caused a more severe pain.

I really…was not… planning to go against God…

I just… just…

Really…

This was all because she had pitied a dying child; because she had felt compassion for the child scratching at the rash covering his body until it bled; because she wanted to save the child’s life. But her intentions went unnoticed. The stones continuously beat against her body.

The great priest kept reviving her.

“Ah…. Aah…”

Even in pain, Grandma Irain just wished for someone to acknowledge she had done this without any ill will. She wished for someone to pray on her behalf, so that her god would know this. At that moment, her eyes saw someone. It was the village child, Kelt, whom she had secretly fed the fruit to.

Child…you know, don’t you?

She begged with her eyes. Kelt flinched.

Our eyes met!

What happens if someone notices that I have some connections to that old witch? Then he would be accused of unfaithfulness too.

No. Not me!

He was a faithful believer. He followed his only god. He wished for his salvation and feared his judgment. He was not the same as the non-believers. He did not drink the fruit because he wanted to. The witch had lost her mind and forced him to eat it.He was innocent. He followed his god. He didn’t know that witch. He lifted a stone.

“Go to hell!”

Puk.

The stone hit Grandma Irain’s eyes, crushing them. The boy she had saved had taken away her vision. A person’s goodwill was nothing compared to God’s salvation. The old woman could cry no longer.

Not wanting to be accused of sympathy, which could be interpreted as unfaithfulness, the people threw rocks with vigor. They were obedient lambs before the powerful priests. The ‘punishment of love’ continued all day.

“I will now deliver their souls to God!”

With that shout, the priest of crimson lifted both arms, and the fire dropped down and torched everyone. People shivered in fear that they may be charred by the crimson great priest and all the other priests who possessed different powers.

“Yes, you are all doing well.”

At the words of the High Priest, the great priests bowed.

“We are honored.”

“You understand. It is love. Love. If you love them, the length of time invested in punishment will not bother you. Instead, you must ponder whether you have given too painless a punishment and whether there is a more agonizing way to dole this out. You must think of it again and again.”

The High Priest talked to them as if he were talking to children.

“We will abide.”

The great priests obediently accepted his teachings without question. How did the High Priest command them so effortlessly? The people watching had no clue. Aside from the four great priests, no one knew what power the High Priest possessed.

It was told that 100 years ago, he appeared under the name of the only god, Angramainyu, conquering Rupellion with unbelievable powers. But no details were revealed about how he wielded the power, the power that had become stronger after the war. The four priests were simply obedient to him.

He was Rupellion’s sole dictator. He already possessed the power Sungjin had only recently acquired. He was bestowed this control with the support of God’s Garden.Only one thing was well-known about him: the words he had spoken after receiving a report of the new awakened king, Blood Ruler Riad.

He is an immature rebel. I will scold him when I have the time, so leave him be.

It was not a phrase of pride or underestimation but confidence.

“Good. Is everything going well aside from the prayer meetings?”

At this gently-asked question, Pangnilin threw himself at the others feet.

“Your Excellency. My lacking power has overshot the grand temple and leaked into the heretic lands.”

“Which heretic lands?”

“The land of the four-kingdom alliance.”

“What sins were administered?”

“It is an epidemic that makes a person vomit blood and shrivel to their death.”

“Hmhm. This is a very unfortunate event. Those lands are lands that reject our god; their sins would be even deeper than those within our lands.”

Pangnilin lowered his head.

“Your servant did not discipline the lower disciples enough.”

“Pitiful. Their sins should be given more love as they are deeper. They would not be able to realize their sins with light punishment.”

By demonstrating hell in life, they would show love and help the heretics find their repentance. This was his teaching. The mad god hid beneath a peaceful smile. That was Pedrian.

“We are lacking.”

“No, this must also contain some of God’s teachings. The past is the past so do better moving forward.”

Pangnilin, the black great priest, was relieved. As expected, the High Priest was benevolent.

What a relief.

After several other reports, the High Priest spoke for the final time.

“Since it seems there are no other issues, I will begin my last fast for the grand temple.”

“Oh, at last.”

“If all the eight grand temples are completed, this continent will be blessed with our god’s love. Then, they will start their repentance and finally become god’s slaves.”

“I look forward to that day.”

“And for that, we will need sacrificial and sacred objects.”

“Of course.”

“If we do not have those two things, the eight grand temples will be pointless. Make sure this is taken care of.”

“Entrust me with this. I will complete this task with my life.”

The completion of the eight grand temples was the hidden land of repentance Rupellion had prepared after 100 years of standstill against Eldorado. If that was completed, the judgment that would befall the continent would no longer be a ‘miniature epidemic’.

It would be complete judgment that would give Rupellion the ultimate victory. Those heretics would kneel before their god. They would cry and beg for their god’s forgiveness in endless torture, a repetetive cycle of not dying but not living. They would regret their past lives and repent again and again.

Once more, the four great priests swore before the High Priest that they would complete this task.

“Yes, then I will take my leave.”

The High Priest grabbed his cane and slowly walked out.

He left without a trace, as when he had arrived. But his presence did not leave the arena, so the four great priests kept prostrating their faith until he was completely gone.

When it was finally gone, the four great priests could stand tall once more.

“It seems…that the day of our victory draws near.”

“Finally, the tug of war with the heretics will come to an end.”

The end was in sight, and the excitement bolstered them.

“Haha! They will all kneel before our God and beg for their lives…or ask for immediate death. Hahaha! It will be a sight to see.”

To conquer the continent and spread their beliefs, they would have to win in the ‘battlefield’ first. This was the law of the ‘false gods’. If their ‘true god’ descended down to this world, they could crush those laws easily.

What they had prepared was a certain path to victory.

Of course, they still needed time to complete the grand temples, and find sacrificial and sacred objects; but, as the sacrifices were already secured and the sacred object would arrive in time…

“There’s trouble!”

A lower priest came running in.

“What’s the trouble?”

“The sacrifice… sacrifice…”

“What about the sacrifice?”

“It’s disappeared.”

“What?!”

The four priests launched from their seats at the same time. The expressions on their faces changed instantly.

“Where could they disappear to?! They should have been sealed perfectly!”

“It should have been sealed with several layers…but the shield hadn’t shattered…”

“Exactly how did you stand guard?!”

Their anger erupted.

The High Priest had entered his fasting in order to complete the prayer. But he would return in a month, and if he finds out the sacrifices have disappeared…they would become the sacrifices; there was nothing else that could fulfill the Great Holy Grail.

But how could the sacrifices disappear? They constructed a defense inescapable for a human. Perhaps, a god had interfered. There was no point in debating how; it would not solve the problem or take away their sins.

The great priests looked at one another. What had happened had happened. Blaming was pointless. They were, after all, the four great priests who served Pedrian.

“We must find it all before the Excellency finishes his prayer!”

“Have God’s Eye’s first and second quarter… no, have the entire quarter find the sacrifices’ whereabouts! No one rests until we find it!” the white great priest ordered.

“Yes, Your Eminence.”

“I will begin the search ritual! Whatever it was would not have been able to disperse the curse placed! Have the choir accompany me!”

“Yes, Your Eminence.”

The blue great priest also stood up immediately.

“Whoever is behind this incident could do it again if we don’t find it. Use the Sword of Judgment to help solve this.”

“Yes, Your Eminence.”

The great priests ran about frantically. Whoever had stolen the sacrifice had waited for the time when the High Priest Pedrian entered fasting.

But for that person to think the other great priests were incompetent would have been a severe miscalculation. They were of a different scale from the three warriors the Blood Ruler had ruled over with disappointment; they were experienced veterans of war.

If they were within the four-kingdom alliance and not Rupellion, they would have been stronger than the king. High Priest Pedrian was simply too strong. But they had their own strengths, and they now combined them in search of the object.

Whoever had stolen this didn’t know what they had gotten themselves into.