Chapter 22: CHAPTER 21

[The Demelian Era was the time when the churches on the continents rose to power. It was the time after all war had ceased, but the scars of war were still there for everyone to see. Many lost their family and friends, leaving a lot of races in a long period of mourning.

That's when the churches appeared. They went to those who were in pain, and gave them something to believe in. There were so many obscure religions back then, according to records, but most of them have died out by now. The ones that are left are the religions we all know and maybe, love.

When the churches began to gain popularity, the leaders on each continent met, despite their enmity, to plan a course of action on what to do about them. Some said they should leave them be, that they could never become a threat, while others said they should nip them in the bud when they don't have the power to resist.

The records we have stop there, so we don't really know what was decided, but looking at the current churches today, it is probably safe to assume that they ultimately decided not to do anything about them.

Though the ones who wanted to get rid of them will probably regret letting them go. After all, on Kalida alone, there are three Holy Kingdoms ruled as a theocracy. One of them even used to be a normal kingdom before one of the churches took over, claiming the royal family were heretics and for the safety of the people, they would assume control of the country for the time being.

The 'assume control for the time being' soon became 'let's create a Holy Kingdom ruled by us'..............Excerpt from: RISE OF THE CHURCHES OF DEVA]

[George's POV]

It's the day after Warden told us that startling information. We're in that training area again with Professor A. He's pairing us up for sparring.

"Josephine and Carter."

I watched as Josephine and Carter came up to the mat.

"You two are not allowed to injure each other too badly. We can't have you hurt too much before the start of the fight club."

"Understood."

"Let's just get on with it."

Josephine and Carter squared off against each other while glaring at each other. Carter spoke first.

"Why are trying to fight against me, Josephine you already know I'm unbeatable when it comes to bare-handed combat. Just give up, you might be good, but you're nowhere close to me."

"That might not necessarily be true, Carter. It could go either way."

Carter let out a low laugh.

"Don't tell me, do you honestly believe that? Do you think you can beat me, the guy who's killed how many, five, seven, of your people?"

For a moment, Josephine's face crumpled a little before she recovered her composure.

"I haven't forgotten what you've done, but still, I don't want to kill you. It would shame their memories."

"Shame their memories? They're probably cursing my name in the underworld right now. They probably, no, definitely want you to cut me up little by little, like I did to them."

His words were true. Whenever Carter wanted or had the chance to kill someone, if he had the time he would cut them up slowly and watch them die. It had been the cause for many of my recent nightmares.

His words brought a gloomy atmosphere back to Josephine's group. They were probably remembering something bad.

"What's with all the talking? Get on with it already!"

Professor A was visibly irritated by their chit-chat.

They walked around the mat, keeping their eyes on each other, never relaxing for even a moment. This continued for a few minutes, until Carter made the first move. He dashed towards Josephine, keeping  his body low and kicking at her legs.

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Josephine deftly moved towards the side and tried to put distance between them.

I nodded to myself. After all the training we had done and what I had seen from Carter, it was practically suicide to get within his reach.

Carter moved towards her again and let loose a series of attacks towards her arms and legs, but Josephine gracefully defended everything, showing why she's one of the best in fighting.

After a little, when Carter moved back a little to change his attacking position, Josephine took advantage of that to get right in front of him while he was off-balance and gave him a sharp kick to his side.

"Ughh!"

Carter grunted and grabbed her leg and threw her across the mat, much to the gasps of her group. He followed up by kicking her in the face when she was trying to get up. She didn't make a sound but used the momentum from the kick to roll away and get back to her feet.

What followed was a battle of wits on Josephine's side as she tried to get hits on Carter without getting into his hands, and Carter chasing her around trying to land a clean hit. Eventually it reached the point when they were both injured, with Josephine having the worse injuries because of the kick she took to her face.

"Why don't you stop, Josephine? You're clearly tired."

"I could say the same to you, Carter. It must be tiring chasing me all around here."

"Tiring? Not even in the least. I'm still raring to go."

Professor A commented from the side.

"Stop trying to buy time to rest. Both of you don't stop until someone's on the ground and not getting back up."

Josephine and Carter didn't even glance towards him, but were looking straight at each other. I heard Alex comment.

"It's time for the final strike. The next strike will decide the winner."

I looked towards him.

"You can tell that?"

He nodded.

"Of course, it's pretty obvious."

Then he seemed to realize who he was speaking to.

"Who do you think you're speaking to?"

I looked away from and didn't retort. I didn't feel like getting into it with him.

Josephine and Carter rushed towards each other with reckless abandon.

When they got within striking range of each other, Carter tried to swing his right fist towards Josephine's face but Josephine dodged and tried use her fingers to go for his eyes and that's when Carter did something shocking. Carter twisted his body to the side with flexibility he wasn't supposed to have and completely dodged her finger strike and simultaneously hit both her face and legs to send her tumbling towards the ground. Carter backed off, panting. It was evident that that movement took a lot out of him.

Josephine didn't get back up.

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