Chapter 33: Chapter 31 Interlude: Of blind faith

Somewhere between the coast and a certain birch forest in a town:

They had been teleported to this town during the baptism of a small girl and Richard believed that it had been a sign of god. The child was their messiah, chosen to lead them to a new era.

He had no idea where they had been teleported to, but it didn’t matter and he began to pray a lot more than before.

Once they realized that they were on a new planet everything began to make sense for Richard.

Humanity had failed, doomed their planet with technology and stopped praying to god. But God had a kind heart and instead of punishing them he chose to give them a new chance where they would be able to repent for their sins.

He still believed the child to be their messiah, but the parents declared him as lunatic and wouldn’t let him near their daughter. That wasn’t enough to stop Richard though and he planned for ways to retrieve the saintess from the grasps of the blasphemers.

At that time Richard also began to preach God's words to the people, but oh so many of the fools turned their backs to his words. They would surely come to their senses later, once the first of them was punished.

Still, there were those that listened and believed Richard's words. They started their own small group under his lead and began to systematically destroy all the technology they could get their hands on. 

Richard made sure that they didn’t take from others, yet. They weren’t strong enough and would lose the resulting conflict. That would be unforgivable, so the group did their activities in the shadows.

Richard never stopped to preach to the fools and was ready to give everyone a chance, just as God had done. It didn’t matter if they called him fanatic, crazy or other things, he would make sure they knew they were wrong.

Because of his endurance Richard slowly gained more followers and once they were a group of about 100 they claimed the church for them. People tried to protest, but because of the situation they were too fractured and couldn’t do anything against it.

In the church Richard and his people still preached the usual sermons, but added their own beliefs. Now if people wanted to follow their religion they had to listen to them and couldn’t ignore his followers.

In the next month many of the regular believers had their eyes opened and began to follow Richard’s words. They were now more than a thousand, which was enough for the next phase to begin.

Richard started to organize public technology demolitions to show all of the people the will of God and ordered his followers to begin collecting everything that had been invented after the middle ages. It was clear that they had strayed from their path with the advent of the enlightenment epoch and had to retrace their steps.

The town of 15000 had no chance to defend itself against what they now called the neo-christians. There was still no true order in place and only a few small groups here and there.

Those that realized what was happening tried to form alliances and fight back, but most of these people had never been in a fight before and broke under the stress of killing someone.

The neo-cristians on the other hand fought like they were in a frenzy. They would not give a single heretic the chance to remain.

A few people had tried to flee, but Richard had deployed people to catch them and bring them to education camps. They would be held and taught there until their eyes had been opened to the truth.

During this time Richard, together with a few guards, had visited the parents of their saint. The parents were still defending their daughter with all they had and even threatened to kill her when Richard was about to use violence.

That move forced him to back up to ensure the safety of their messiah. The event had shown him something though, the parents were clearly demon followers. 

Instead of retrieving the girl openly Richard was now forced to work in secret again. He had people constantly watching the family to make sure the girl was alright and after 3 days a few of his followers broke into their house at night.

In silence they saved the little girl and then took the parents as prisoners. Richard had to make sure that people knew what happened to demon believers.

A few days later people had gathered in the largest place in town, an open park. A wooden stage had been built and two crucifixes were standing in front of it. The two parents of the girl knelt on the stage, their gazes moving over the crowd, desperately trying to find someone who would help them.

Richard, clothed in a white robe and with the girl in his arms, walked towards the stage in a dignified manner. He slowly ascended the steps, making every motion look important. 

Upon the stage he turned to his audience with a sad but serious expression. His gaze swept over the crowd as he waited for silence to set in. “My fellow people and believers, may god bless you on this dreadful and yet beautiful day.”

He bowed and then stood upright again. “Today's gathering fills me with sadness, but the safe retrieval of the messiah still puts my heart at ease.”

He handed the girl over to a woman in front of the stage and then raised his arms and voice. “Today we gathered to punish the demon believers that tried to kill our messiah. They tried to fool us and gave themselves out as her parents, but luckily we found them before their wretched plan could come to completion.”

A few people cheered here and there. The girl's parents were brought to the crucifixes and then brutally nailed at them. Their cries of pain sounded throughout the park, their pleading for mercy, but nobody moved to help them and everyone just watched in anticipation.

Some of Richard’s closer followers brought some firewood and began to neatly stack it under the two crying adults. Once they were finished Richard helt his fist to the sky, his voice a cry of fervent belief. “Today two heretics will burn to make this world a better place.”

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People followed his lead and cheered while a man in a gray robe carrying a burning torch walked towards the two victims. He lit a fire under the two parents and their pleading intensified. Sadly their cries fell on deaf ears and after a few minutes the only thing you could hear were their cries of pain.

They died not long after that and Richard voiced out a prayer. “May their souls be forgiven by god.”

A chorus of voices answered him. “May their souls be forgiven by god.”

 

—

 

Three weeks had gone by since this event. Under the lead of Richard, the new pope, order was quickly established and the church now ruled over this town. They had also found other villages and Richard would make sure to open their eyes to God's message too. 

The only direction they had yet to find anything in was to the west where the river that was flowing through the town originated from. There was a large birch forest there, so they focused their scouting in the other directions.

Richard was currently holding a sermon at the river, to apiece god and for him to bless their water. Once he was done people cheered and began to wash themselves in the river. Richard watched over them with a smile. This was how it was supposed to be and not how they had lived before.

Suddenly a cry of pain sounded out and a man fell over into the river. Someone near him reacted fast and carried him out of the river where the man writhed on the ground in pain.

Richard hurried in the direction with concern on his face. He was greeted by the sight of a man that slowly turned into something akin to a bat-human.

Richard immediately recognized what was happening. God had heard his voice and blessed the water, which now revealed a demon that had been hiding amongst them. He pointed at the thing, his body radiating a sense of urgency. “A demon! God has blessed our water and it now reveals demons!”

Richard's voice became a bit crazed. “Kill it!”

One of the holy guards immediately ended the demon's life with a long knife. Splattering blood on the ground.

After that Richard had all the people of the town bath in the water and was surprised that nearly 80% of them turned into demons. How hadn’t they noticed such a large amount of demons amongst them?

He never doubted it to be something else as some of the people turned into angels instead, even their messiah turned into a small angel with white wings.

The demons were immediately killed and the angels venerated and cared for with utmost priority.

When it was Richard’s turn the river had already turned red. Unperturbed by this and sure of himself he strode into the water. There he could feel a strange energy entering him. It had to be God's energy so he embraced it and began to pray while his body changed. Never did he feel pain like the others had done.

Before he opened his eyes he pushed all the energy god had given to him back, because he did not believe himself worthy of it.

Richard opened his eyes and looked down at himself. He had changed into one of the bat- humans. Something impacted his throat and pain erupted in his body. Blood was spurting everywhere and Richard fell over, slowly drifting downriver.

A screen opened before his mind's eye.

Skill created

 

• Prayer

• Send your mana and a message to the deity you believe in.

 

His vision went black and the last thought Richard had had was that the demons had tricked them. He was stupified by how deep they had infiltrated humanity, but one thing was sure, bats had always been the true angels.

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