Chapter 154: Chapter 150 A Avatar meets with a Prioress.

Walking through the city Jack slowly made his way towards the center. As he did so he took the chance to examine the surroundings. In his opinion none of the streets really made any sense, it was as if they were just built where they were from guesswork than from planning. Even most of the buildings were poorly designed messes, though as he approached the center they became older but better designed. He also took this time to keep an eye out for that stalker.

Like he had guessed, the spy had indeed chosen to follow him in a discrete manner. Or at least he attempted to, to be honest the man was a complete failure of stealth. Jack would have assumed the man was just blatantly following him had the man not attempt to hide behind a thin pole when Jack turned his head to look at one of the buildings. Yet as he approached the headquarters of the Order of Purification, he began spotting more spies that were following him.

Getting annoyed from being followed like this, he made the decision to dash forward and through an alley. The spies attempted to give chase but Jack quickly outsped them and whipped around several corners before slipping inside of an archway. A few seconds later the original spy came by wheezing unaware that he had just run by his quarry. Smirking Jack stepped out and once again began to head towards the center this time without being followed.

As he passed an old worn down building a woman leaning on the wall stood and said "Please wait a moment good sir. I have a very important message to pass on to you."

Frowning he could see she had been waiting here for a few minutes, most likely for him if he had to guess given the way she looked at him. Thinking that she was another one of those spies he said "I'm sorry miss, but I happen to need to be somewhere else at the moment. Perhaps some other time."

The woman simply smiled pleasantly and said "I'm sorry to hear that. However, I assure you this is very important." She reached into her robes and pulled out a folded piece of paper and handed it to him. "The Prioress instructed me to give this to you when I saw you."

Skeptical he opened up the paper and read the message on it. 'I can help you find whatever you are looking for within the city, all I need is a bit of help. If you are interested, my messenger will lead you to me.' After he read the note, he found the words actually began to fade away quickly until the paper was completely blank. Glancing towards the monk he asked "So where exactly is your Prioress?"

"Actually not too far away sir. I will take you there right away." She said and quickly led him down a few streets to a rather nondescript building.

The building took minimalism to the extreme on the exterior and on the inside was even further. There were no decorations on the inside other than a small empty altar in front of which several monks were meditating on rather beat up pillows. The only chairs he spotted were more like stools then actual chairs, and there was not a single table that he could see. The monk took him up a set of stairs past several rooms that lacked doors. Eventually she stopped in front of a room in which another woman was sitting on top of a burlaps sack in a meditative pose.

The girl who brought him whispered "Here is the Prioress sir." She bowed and quietly left leaving the two of them alone.

Taking a closer look at the woman, he could see she had a very classical style of beauty to her. It was as if she had been formed straight from marble. She even sat as still as a statue in her meditative state. Only the slight movement of her chest let him actually know she was alive. Her hair had been cut to a short crop, and was so blond it was white. She by all appearances looked human, yet he got the distinct feeling of something divine about her. Before he could in fact examine her she spoke up and said "Ah hello sir. I thank you for coming to meet with me. I am sure we have a great deal to discuss. Please take a seat."

Nodding he took a seat on the offered burlap sack pillow and winced a bit when he felt what had to rocks within them. "That was a strange method of contacting me. A message that vanished as one read it. I have to warn you I'm not interested in doing anything immoral. If that is what you wanted to see me about then you are sadly mistaken about what you can do for me."

She gave a small smile and said "That is not something you need to be concerned about. I assure you that I have no interest in committing foul deeds myself. The reason for the message is because I'm having to take precautions given the state of the city nowadays. Too many orders are vying for power, and I can't afford to let uninvolved parties get their hands on my messages."

"I believe I understand." He said. "You mentioned that you would be able to help me find what I was searching for in the city. But do you in fact know what I am searching for?"

"Not specifically no. But I can certainly guess as there are only a few things people like you are looking for." The way she stressed that last sentence told him she didn't believe that he was human. "Of those, most I can help you find. The ones I can't, I can still pull some strings to help you. I am Prioress Yunacas, the leader of the Order of Devotion."

"It's a pleasure to meet you Prioress. My name is Jack. I must express my ignorance, I'm unfamiliar with this city. You said you were the leader of the Order of Devotion, but what are the orders and how many of them are in the city?"

She frowned and said "To most outsiders it must seem that all the monks in the city are part of one group. In actual fact we are split among multiple groups. I've long lost count of the Orders as most come and go with the exception of a few. One of which being the Order of Purification, which you met earlier. Now each of these Orders is technically tied to one another, but to be honest most are just acting in their own best interests. This was not always the case, at the start there were only three Orders. The Order of Devotion, The Order of Purification, and lastly the one that was supposed to lead us The Order of Contemplation."

"What do you mean was supposed to lead you?" He asked, hearing a sad sigh in her voice when she mentioned them.

Yes, they keep some semblance of rules within the city, but they don't really care about the city as long as everything runs and keeps them supplied to war against corruption. disbanded after it was found that multiple members and their leader broke cardinal rules. Since they broke up, multiple Orders have attempted to assume the mantle of leadership but none have really succeeded. This has lead to the mess of a city you see today."

"What about the Order of Purification? I was under the impression they threw their weight around here. Don't they lead you?"

"Not really." She shook her head. "They have one purpose in mind and one purpose only, the complete and utter destruction of all corruption. Yes, they keep some semblance of rules within the city, but they don't really care about the city as long as everything runs and keeps them supplied to war against corruption. Which might be for the best given their absolute fanatical attitudes that don't really make for the best leading a city."

"I see. What is your Order's purpose then?"

"That is a hard question to answer. Most of the other Orders view us as little more than lap dogs for them. Sadly in a sense we are, as most of my members do more to help keep this city running then the other Orders do. Our actual purpose, however, is our namesake. Devotion. We were meant to take those who corruption touched after they had been purified by the well and help them live a life of purpose once more. As you perhaps know, once corruption gets into your soul it changes you. Not for the better, and even when that corruption is purged there is lasting damage to one's soul. They need guidance and often times help to find a new purpose to living."

"That is a grand ideal. Though when I hear of Devotion, most times I am reminded of those that are in fact devoted to gods. Devotion in a sense is a practice of worship."

"Indeed. However, we do not worship the gods here in this city, and a grand contract was made with all the gods and goddesses to keep their influence from this city. With the sole exception of one god who was allowed to conduct his duties within the city. Though that god's followers have long gone to follow so to speak and pretty much forgotten in this city. Which now brings up the question, to which god do you serve?" She asked, looking at him.

"I serve no god, though I am friendly to most of them."

She narrowed her eyes and said "I find that hard to believe given what I suspect you are. The Angels that are created by the gods are devoted to the ones who made them. So which god made you?"

"Ah I see where you are mistaken. I am not in fact an Angel, and as far as I am aware of no God created this body. As for my soul that is a philosophical question that I don't know the answer to and no god has claimed as such."

She looked at him with a look of doubt before answering "As the leader of the Order of Devotion I make it a priority to keep aware of what's happening in the city. So I am aware of your incident with the purity checker. The only times that has occurred were when Angels and their like touched the checker. So you see I have good reason to believe that you are not a regular human, in fact with you in front of me I can certainly tell that you are no mere mortal."

"Well I am not an angel, and I can tell you're not a human either." He responded.

Her features froze for a moment before she let out a laugh and nodded "Indeed, I am more then what I appear to be. Well, those in the Order of Purification are convinced that you are an Angel and have set out tabs to keep track of you. This would not be the first time a god has sent one of their agents into the city on some mission of theirs. Now since you are not an angel Jack, that leaves a few possibilities. Possibilities that would cause trouble for you and I."

"Such as?"

"You being a god. Given that you are within the city you must be a newborn god that has yet to sign onto the concord that bars all the gods from entering in this place. If that is the case then the Order of Purification will ask you to leave and I would be forced to agree with them."

Jack shrugged and shook his head "I assure you that I am not a god, I am in fact a System. But why are gods so not wanted inside this city next to the Well?"

"A System?" She asked, looking confused. "You will have to explain that to me after I tell you why gods are barred from this city. It comes down to one thing and one thing only. Power. The Well would grant a god too much power, and as the adage says power can lead to corruption. Even if that power comes from a purifying source. The way the flame energies are set up in the well it would not take much manipulation to change them to a divine source which would effectively greatly enhance a gods power. At the cost of potentially destroying the well of course."

"I see." Jack nodded. "So to keep balance the gods must be kept from this city."

"Indeed. So what is this about you being a system?"

"In a simple description a System is basically a soul energy support structure mechanism. Which basically translates to me helping people who sign up with me. I help them achieve what they want in exchange for them generating system power for me. That's the basics, but it's a bit more complicated than that."

She looked at him still with a confused look then shook her head and said "I see. So I know what an Angel or a God might be interested in the city, but a System? I couldn't really guess. So Mr. System why exactly are you in my city?"

He briefly examined her making sure she wasn't suffering from corruption and noting with mild surprise that she was in fact a half-angel he said "A few of my Users have uncovered information that a massive corruption cult was working across the Kingdom of Keston. With some help from the Goddess of Sleep, we determined that they appear to be working at some devilish plot within this city. In fact one of my users has already confirmed the presence of the corruption cult within your city."

She frowned and then nodded. "I'm guessing they were the one who burnt down that lair of Corruption within the city?"

"Indeed."

"That discovery has the whole city on edge. The Order of Purification has gone on full alert, and has begun to search the city from top to bottom." She said, shaking her head. "Lately, I had begun to suspect that some corrupted individuals had infiltrated the city. Too many things were starting to add up, but it's hard to spot one dangerous leak, when the entire boat already has multiple leaks. The fact that this corruption cult hid under our noses is not overly surprising, but the fact that they would choose to hide out here is. What could they be planning?"

"We aren't sure, but signs are pointing to them attempting to rip a hole to the realm of corruption." Jack said. "I came here with my Users to prevent that from occurring. Do you think you can help me out?"

She closed her eyes in thought for a bit and then nodded and said "I can help you do as such. Yet I'm afraid I cannot do this without anything in return I'm afraid. For my full support I must ask you to help me out and then I will provide you with anything you need to remove this plague from my city."

"What exactly do you need me to do?"

"Have you heard of the Story of King Adarnas and Queen Thetas?"

"I can't say I have."

"Shortly after the goblin wars ended, several kingdoms arose in the area of Keston. The one that arose near the well was called the Kingdom of Esmatada over which King Adarnas and the Queen Thetas ruled. The pair had led countless battles against the goblins and had become loved by the people. The well at that time was part of a set of ruins and not well known. The times after the goblin wars were tough, multiple cults and factions had sprung up to fill power vacuums. Several of these cults were in fact corrupted cults, why they appeared is not known but they began to raid the newly formed kingdoms."

She sighed at this point and said "After the birth of their third child, the Queen was kidnapped by a corrupted cult and sacrificed. When the King found out he was infuriated and vowed to destroy all those of corruption. It was around this time they discovered the well and it's usefulness against corruption. He gave up his Kinghood and founded the three original orders and began his campaigns of war against the corrupted cults until the day he was lost."

Jack nodded and said "That was a very interesting tale." There was only so much information he could get from the system. Much of the past was simply a mystery to him, so it was good to hear a bit of it in person. "So what exactly does this have to do with what you want my help with?"

"When Lord Adarnas created the three orders he bestowed upon them three artifacts he discovered in the ruins around the well. One was a sword, which he gave to the Order of Purification. One was a necklace which he gave to the Order of Devotion." She said reaching into her robes and pulling out a thick golden chain necklace with a glowing red rock lay within. "As the leader of the Order, this is my burden I must wear."

"Burden?" He asked.

"While they are artifacts of great power, the power also comes at a great cost. Each of them takes something from the one wielding them. Sometimes more when you actually use them."

"What did it take from you?"

She gave a sad little smile and said "The first thing it took was my sense of touch. Then it made me sterile. It took the sight of my left eye last year."

Disturbed he asked "Would that return to you if you remove the necklace?"

She shook her head. "I'm not sure. The necklace cannot be removed until my death. Unlike the other two artifacts, this necklace was meant to be worn continuously."

"I see."

"The last artifact was a Staff given to the leader of the Order of Contemplation. When the leader was removed, that staff was placed inside of the tomb of King Adarnas until the time a new leader was chosen. Unfortunately, it has not come to pass, so the staff remains unused. This cannot go on any longer and a new leader must arise to help coalesce these orders together and purge the corruption from within. Which is why I need your help to retrieve the staff."

"Wait, you want me to break into a tomb and take this staff? Why exactly do you need this staff? Can't you just claim the leadership role?"

"No, I cannot be the leader nor would I even want to be as such. I'm satisfied with my current role as is. I wish to restart the order of Contemplation and have several candidates in mind that would be suitable leaders. However, without the staff they will lack the authority to command the other orders even if they are the New Order of Contemplation."

He looked at her doubtfully. "Even if you get the staff, what makes you think that they would even obey the commands from them? I think it takes a bit more then some symbol of authority to get people to follow you."

She chuckled and said "Yes, while the staff has some amazing powers, it is in a sense just a symbol. A symbol that would mean nothing to most of the orders as they came about long after the Order of Contemplation was gone. However, it really only needs to matter to one Order. The Order of Purification, once they accept it they will essentially force all the other orders into line behind the new Order of Contemplation and quickly weed out all the ones who don't."

"That sounds handy, except why would they even care? Didn't you say they really only care about getting rid of corruption?"

She looked down and said "I'm very familiar with the leader of the Order of Purification. They are fanatic to a fault, but they are also absolutely loyal to the original ideals of Lord Adarnas. Should they be presented with a person wielding the Staff they would accept them without question. That's the kind of person they are." She said with a smile and shake of her head. "Of course I still need to find someone who can actually wield the staff. Like I said before these artifacts do take a toll, and even I'm not confident the candidates I have in mind would be able to take on that burden."

"When the Order of Contemplation was disbanded, why didn't they create a new one to replace it?"

The Prioress was silent for a while and then said "You must understand at the time the three leaders were extremely close, sharing pretty much everything between them. When the betrayal of the Order of Contemplation was discovered, it left a wound into each of our orders that has never truly healed. The thought of a new order of contemplation at the time hurt too much to think about so the staff was sealed away. Over the years there were a few attempts to bring it back but nothing ever came about. But it needs to be done and I need the staff in order to reforge the bond the three had."

Looking at her eyes, he could see the fire within. Nodding "I understand. I can help you get this staff, but where exactly is this tomb?"

"To honor Lord Adarnas, the tomb was built in the old ruins of the Well. Which is located on the Order of Purifications Training grounds."

Frowning he said "That doesn't sound very easy to get to."

She laughed and nodded "Indeed that is considered one of the safest places in the city. One of the Order of Purifications secret jobs is to keep watch over the ruins."

"I don't think I'm going to be allowed to just stroll up to the ruins. Plus I'm not exactly going to want to fight my way to it either."

"You needn't worry about that, as I will simply be taking you to the tomb myself. I may not have direct authority over the Order of Purification, but I am still a Prioress of the Order of Devotion. They cannot stop me from heading to the ruins with an assistant in tow."

Feeling a bit confused he asked "If you can go there, why exactly do you need my help?"

"The door to the tomb requires those of a unique nature to open. That nature being able to shatter a purification stone like you did. So that is why I was interested in meeting you, because you are in fact my only hope of actually opening up the tomb."

"There is no other way to open the tomb?"

She hesitated "There is another one who could have helped me, but I couldn't convince them of the importance of doing so."

He frowned and said "If the Order of Purification is meant to protect the tomb, will they not attempt to stop us especially if they see me going with you?"

She shook her head "They may like to, but without direct orders from their leader they will not touch us. As long as you travel with me, they won't be able to stop you either. The Leader of the Order of Purification is currently focusing on finding out the source of corruption that was in last night's blaze."

"Fine." He said satisfied with her explanations so far. "So when exactly do you want to do this?"

"The sooner the better. Now that I know a corruption cult is already within our city, we do not have a moment to lose. Every day that they are within our city the more corruption will build."

Standing she took him out the room and down a set of stairs out the back. "The training grounds are not too far from here. Stay close to me or they may attempt to separate us."

Following her he noticed as they got closer to their destination he began to spot the spies from before now blatantly following him out in the open. They were giving him looks of disdain and anger, but they kept back under the looks of Prioress Yunacas. It took only a short time to make it to the training grounds but even so he counted at least thirty people following them. When they reached the entrance the spies took off as a guard stepped out and said "Prioress Yunacas, good afternoon. The Commander is out at the moment."

"Thank you for informing me, but I have not come to see her today. Today I will be headed to the tomb today to pay respects to the founder."

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The Guard gave a great frown looking from her to Jack and finally stepped aside. "Understood Prioress. I will inform the Commander of your presence at the tomb."

"Great." She smiled at the guard and stepped past him into the training grounds. Following her, he found that the training grounds consisted of several buildings alongside a large field. On the opposite end was a small forest filled with thick trees. On the field were several groups of people currently doing different training exercises. One of the groups ran by singing a song of battle. Making their way across the field towards the trees, he began spotting several ancient looking pieces of stone in the forest.

"This forest used to cover this entire area before it was cut down." The Prioress said. "That was partly the reason why the well was so hard to find before. Stick to the path, this forest has a strange effect of making you lost if you stray too far from a designated path."

"Was this forest made by the people who made the well?"

"I suspect it was in an effort to hide the well. But we managed to cut the forest down to this area. Now it serves as protection for the remnants of the ruins and the Tomb."

"Do you know much about the people who built the tomb?"

"Unfortunately not really. A lot of the information was long destroyed by the time we really began to open up the ruins. What evidence we did find, well lets just say I don't think the builders were very nice people. We found ample evidence that the well was constructed by slaves and is alot older. Of course we don't like mentioning that fact to everyone, might scare people off from using the well." She frowned and continued "Lord Ardarnas found a mass graveyard in a nearby valley, the remains of the slaves likely. Thousands of poor souls were buried there, if it were not for the Wells ' ability to burn out corruption then we would've condemned the Well as being the product of pure evil."

"A tool created by an evil man is not necessarily evil. That is if you actually know the purpose of the tool." He said as they followed the path into the woods.

"That is the problem. We don't actually know what the well is meant for. The only one who probably had an idea was Lord Adarnas. Speaking of which..." She said as they entered a clearing with a massive statue of a man holding a sword aloft. "That is a statue of Lord Adarnas." A trace of sadness was in her voice. "Sadly we do not really know what happened to him. On the last battlefield against the corrupted cults, he disappeared never to be seen again. Some of the monks at the time proclaimed he had been ascended into the pantheon of the gods, but no god has ever confirmed as such."

She shook her head "Come along. The entrance to the tomb is right over here."

Moving behind the statue, they came to a set of stone steps that led down into the ground. Following them down they came to a large door upon which two large red crystals had been implanted. "Now in order for the door to open, both of us must touch the crystal..."

A priority message from Kara lit up his vision distracting him from what the Prioress was saying.

 

 

A few seconds later he felt the pull as Kara said and he opened up his power to it. It felt really odd as if his vision suddenly split and he found part of himself looking down at what appeared to be a quarry. Then he unleashed his force down upon the ground and broke through a dark ritual, as he did so he could also feel corrupted eyes look towards that beam of power before it went off and he found himself kneeling on the ground with the Prioress looking down at him in concern. "What happened? Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm okay." He stood "One of my Users just requested some help from me, and I needed to focus on that for a second. Sorry for worrying you."

She looked at him and shook her head "It's fine, I'm guessing it's just a System kind of thing right?"

"Right. Now what were you saying about the crystal?"

"They are similar to the purification checkers. You just need to put in a bit of your aura into them. Of course you don't need to put in too much, like the checkers they can break if you put in too much at one time." She placed her hand on one of the crystals and said "We need to do it at the same time so from the count of three."

He placed his hand on the crystal, and she said "Three, two, one."

When the countdown ended, he carefully introduced his aura into the crystal. Within seconds the red crystal and changed into a glowing white one to match the one under the Prioress's hand. The door began to creak open and when it fully opened there was a loud thump. Lamps down the hallway suddenly burst into flames lighting the stone path ahead. As they went forward, he found reliefs were carved into the wall. Various jewels and the like were implanted into the stones.

They passed a large portion of the wall where it looked to have been completely torn off. Noticing his gaze on it, the Prioress said "Unfortunately when the tomb was nearly complete a group of thieves snuck in and cut out this section of the relief."

"I can understand them breaking out the jewels from the relief, but why steal the relief itself?"

"I couldn't tell you. That part had numerous jewels in it, so maybe they thought it was just easier to take that part out. Plus the relief had been carved by a master artist at the time, so maybe they thought it would be valuable to someone later on. We never managed to track down the thieves, and the relief has never turned up."

As they continued down the hallway, he began to spot various cracks in the walls appearing. The Prioress went to them and ran her hands on them frowning. "These definitely weren't here the last time I was here. Perhaps it's damage from the earthquake." She sighed and said "I will have to bring a builder in here later to make sure this hallway is still structurally sound."

Moving on they reached a small room where three statues of females stood next to three separate hallways. "This tomb was mostly constructed from the remains of the ruins. Down the Middle hallway is the altar to where we set up the memorial to Lord Andras. The staff is located down the left hallway."

"What's down the right?"

"That leads to an old entrance to the well no longer used and has been sealed up. Come." She said heading down the left path.

The soon turned a corner in this hallway where he spotted what at first appeared that part of the wall ahead looked to have collapsed. Alarmed Yunacas dashed forward with him following close behind. When they got closer, he realized that it was actually a tunnel that had been bored into this hallway. "What the hell is this?" She said horrified.

As he examined the tunnel, he realized he could sense the presence of corruption coming from the tunnel, in addition to a foul smell of rot. "Oh no the Staff!" Yunacas said and began to run down the hallway.

He took one look down the tunnel and could sense that this tunnel had been opened not too long ago. Then he set off after the Prioress and found her leaning against a statue cursing. The room had three statues of beings that wore robes that completely hid their features. They were in poses that asserted an almost complete dominance over the room and he got an ugly sense of hostility from them as well. Each of them had a slot on their hands that was clearly meant to hold something. "It's not here." Prioress growled out in anger.

Going over to her he put his hand on her shoulder and asked "I take it that the staff was meant to be here?"

"Yes!" She snapped and then took a deep breath. "The staff was left here for safekeeping but now those damn corrupted fools have taken it. Dammit I knew I should have pushed her to retrieve the staff sooner."

"Don't worry we'll get it back. That tunnel was opened recently, they couldn't have gotten too far with the staff. So this is where you stored the staff?"

"Yes. These statues were in fact where Lord Adarnas actually found the three artifacts. When the Order of Contemplation was disbanded, we figured this would be the safest place to store the staff. But how fucking we were." She said frustrated.

"Did a lot of people know the staff was here?"

She frowned and shook her head. "Not too many, but if they knew about the staff then they could have guessed this was the location where we were storing it."

"Alright we should check out that tunnel to see where it leads." He said and she nodded following him back down the hallway to that tunnel.

As they climbed into the tunnel, he had to bend down as the tunnel was barely five feet tall. When the tunnel began to darken Prioress Yunacas raised her hand and a small white flame appeared next to them softly illuminating the tunnel. Taking a look around as he walked it didn't really appear that the tunnel was carved out by hand. After several twists in the tunnel they finally reached a large hollowed out chamber. Several tunnels like they were shot off in various directions, with some being what looked like parts of some sewer tunnels.

Directly in the middle of the chamber were three chained up nude people currently in the middle of being tortured by a man whose face looked to be melting off from corruption. This man was using a foul glowing knife to carve sigils into these poor people's bodies. Off to the side of them, Jack spotted the creature that likely created the tunnel behind him slumbering. It was a massive rotting worm that was the size of a rhino, it's body leaking black ooze. He would have assumed it was dead, if not for the occasional movement coming from it.

From beside him, the Prioress whispered "I don't see the staff down there."

"Neither do I. It must have taken down one of these tunnels. We have to take that man alive and figure out what he knows."

She nodded and said "I'll deal with him. You deal with that worm thing."

"Got it." He said as he slipped down the embankment towards the center of the room. Despite lacking any visible eyes, the worm was the first to react to their approach. It spasmed and began to wiggle surprisingly fast towards them which alerted the corrupted man to them as well. The man cursed and then said several magical words while releasing the chains on the enslaved people. Within seconds the nude three began to change horrifically into corrupted monstrous things which let out wails of pain and leaped towards them with the worm.

The worm opened it's rotting mouth and a surge of black goo shot out. Dodging to the side, the Prioress began to fight the three changed people who were crying out as their bodies went against their wills. Meanwhile, Jack took the worm on and punched it's side only for his fist to sink disgustingly into it. When he pulled it out, several smaller worms were attempting to burrow into his flesh. Upset he poured energy into his aura and cleaned off his hand then dodged another strike by the worm. Not wanting to touch it again he formed a box of energy around the giant worm.

Sensing that it was in danger the worm began to buck around, but it was unsuccessful in breaking free. Yunacas had cast out a white flame that began to burn the monsters as they attempted assaulting her. When one would get close, she would grab them and fling them around the chamber. With a grunt he began to make the box around the worm begin to decrease in size. The worm gave out a screech of pain then there was a disgusting popping sound as the worm exploded within the box. In the black goo he spotted more worms moving about so he continued to squeeze the box down. While he was doing this, he spotted that the corrupted man from before was running towards one of the tunnels.

Not wanting him to escape he raised a blue barrier right in front of the man who crashed face first into and was sent backwards sprawling to his ass. Jack then put a box around him while he turned to help Prioress with the three monsters. He saw that she had already killed one and had greatly injured another. The third was dancing around landing the occasional strike on the monk. Stepping forwards he found the ground began to shake incredibly violently. From down the tunnels came a greater roar of some massive creature, from that he could feel a sense of pure evil and the corruption of something long dead.

The short earthquake had tripped the third monster allowing the Prioress to envelop them into a blaze of the white fire. It rolled around screaming in agony, and Yunacas ran over to the boxed corrupted man. He opened the box for her and she grabbed the man by his throat and growled "Where is the Staff you fucking piece of shit?"

Struggling to breathe under the Prioress's grasp, he began to laugh as he said "The Lord has taken what is rightfully his and soon we shall all be embraced by the Great Lamia. She will feast upon our flesh and grant us the eternal salvation we deserve!"

Growling in anger, the Prioress broke his neck with a flick of her wrist. Then she lit his body on fire and spat upon it. "Damn them all. What do we do now?"

Glancing towards the three charged bodies of the monsters and saw that one was still alive. "Maybe we can get something from her."

The poor woman's body was barely recognizable as a human. Lumps of flesh grew out where there wasn't supposed to be and her skin had been charged black by the prioress fire. Through her one good eye, she looked upon Jack when he approached and a weak voice the girl said "Please kill me. With that bastard dead, I am free from the bindings he put upon me. I can feel what he did to me starting to eat away at my soul, it's already destroyed my body don't let it destroy my soul as well." It pleaded.

Frowning he examined her and found there was nothing he could do to help the poor girl. She had been far too corrupted, even the flames of the well would just completely burn her away. The Prioress said "We will help you pass on, but before that could you tell us if you saw a staff come by here?"

The charred girl groaned and said "I'm sorry for attacking you. I couldn't control my body. My memories are fuzzy under the past few days. I came to this city to see my brother purified when I was taken. I think I saw a strange looking staff recently, it was being carried by a large group of them. I think they said they are bringing it to their Lord of theirs or something. They took it down that middle passage over there." The girl weakly pointed out the passage she was talking about. "Please end this agony." The girl once again pleaded.

Yunacas nodded and said "I thank you for your help. Please close your eyes. You will rest soon and your pain will end."

The girl closed her eyes weakly, and the Prioress placed her hands upon the girl's head. A soft glow began to emerge from the Prioress, and Jack was amazed when a pair of bright wings appeared from her back. The glow turned fierce and with a shudder the poor girl's body shuddered as life was suddenly extinguished. The Prioress stood and he watched as she carefully pulled out the soul of the girl. She cradled the spark within her hands then released it towards the ceiling letting it go on its journey.

She watched for a few seconds and her wings slowly disappeared again. She smiled and then looked over at Jack and said "Now you know what I am."

"I do. Though I have a few questions, you don't have to explain it to me."

"As much as I would love to explain everything to you, it is not my full story to tell. What I can say is I'm not a full angel. I was born from a union of an angel and a human. I do still have a connection to the god that made my father but I don't let it affect my duties as Prioress."

"I see. Thank you for telling me but we should get going, who knows what they are doing with that staff."

They quickly jogged down the tunnel. Soon the walls changed to ones made out of brick and the Prioress looked at them frowning. "Wait a second. I recognize this place."

She ran her hands along the stones and said "This tunnel was part of the old location of the Order of Contemplation. The upper portions were completely razed to the ground after their betrayal was discovered. I had thought the lower portions had been destroyed as well, but apparently not."

"How do you know?"

"See these stones?" She pointed at the bricks. "To honor the Order of Contemplation, each brick was signed by one of the members at the time."

Looking closely at the bricks, he could see a worn-out signature in each of them. "Where exactly are we under now?"

"After the destruction it was decided to build an Arena over it. The Order of Purification thought it was a perfect fit." She glanced towards the ceiling and shook her head. "I would rather have had them leave it alone."

They continued down the tunnel to two sets of stairs, one leading upwards likely to the Arena and the other led downwards. From the downwards one he got the scent of corruption that was thick on the air along with a strange smell of fire. While he was doing that the Prioress had grasped her necklace and closed her eyes. After a bit she opened them and said "I can feel the presence of the staff, I belive it to be somewhere above us."

Quickly they dashed up the stairs as they did so he asked "You can sense the staff?"

"Only when I am close to it, and only when I focus upon my necklace."

The stairs led up to a small room that had two sets of windows. One side looked into what Jack believed to be a resting room for participants of the Arena. As they looked in the Prioress said "This room shouldn't be here. I don't recall windows looking down here."

He took a moment to examine the windows and discovered they weren't actually made out of glass but were in fact magically enchanted stone that allowed one to view through them on one side but not the other. The other window probably looked out over into the Arena, however rubble was still blocking the window so they couldn't look out. Still through the cracks he could see an ominous red glow through them. There was also what sounded like chanting. A low rumbling sound from the arena didn't sound very good.

"Ah found a way out." The Prioress said opening a door that had been hidden on the side. Going through it, they found another set of stairs that led up to another door that slid to the side revealing a hallway. Taking a look around the Prioress said "This is the VIP section of the Arena. Was this always hidden here? Come we can take a look at what's going on in the arena in one of the VIP rooms."

Opening one door, she led him into a dark room with plush chairs overlooking the Arena. Daylight was coming down from the opened roof. Rubble and debris from the collapsed roof filled the Arena. However, in the middle of the arena, the rubble had been cleared away. A strange ominous pedestal had been pushed up from under the ground and was surrounded by dozens of corrupted followers who were chanting in a language that made his skin feel oily and disgusting. Striding up to the pedestal was a massive man wearing a cloak. He was carrying a large staff at the end of which was a massive red crystal.

When Jack examined the man, he could sense a huge amount of corrupted power within him. Power that easily matched some of the gods that Jack had met. As he looked at the cloaked man, the man twisted back to look up at them and while Jack couldn't see the man's face, he felt like he was smirking.

"He has the Staff!" The Prioress cried out in anger and leapt out of the box and landed on top of a large piece of rubble with her wings bursting out in her rage. Jack followed her down into the Arena and they made their way towards the corrupted group. As they raced to them the cloaked figure raised the staff and slammed it into the pedestal sending out an odd ringing sound. Seconds later the ground began to shake violently causing the Arena to start to collapse around them.

While the both of them were struggling to stand and avoid the falling rocks the cloaked figure called out "You are too late Princess. I will bring forth the Great Lamia, and will be embraced by her love."

Jack saw that Yunacas face changed from rage to horror as the cloaked figure spoke and she cried out "No, It can't be you."

The figure let out a laugh of corruption and raised the staff and then there was a flash of pure red light that enveloped the corrupted group. Jack felt the space around them twist and when he could see again the group had been whisked away. Seconds later there came a loud boom from outside and through the collapsed roof Jack could see a massive pillar of flame emerge from the direction of the well. It flared to the sky, and large chunks of flames began to fall back to the ground.

Some of which came flying down into the Arena. Sensing the intense heat, he grabbed the dazed Prioress and leapt out of the way, just in time as the flames hit, acting more like a liquid then actual flames. The flames coated the ground, so he had leapt up into the broken stands. When he landed, he shook the Prioress out of her daze "This is bad, really bad." She began muttering and then looked at him and said "We need to get to the Order of Purification right away."

"Got it." Feeling like he would need help from his Users, he sent a message to them letting them know he needed them right away at the base of the Order of Purification. Then they headed out of the arena, and the streets were a madhouse. Monks were fleeing around in terror, with the occasional Order of Purification group attempting to gain control. The Pillar of flame from the well-kept sending fireballs into the surroundings and on the way to the Headquarters Jack spotted several peoples bodies laying in the ground burned.

Frustrated from the senseless loss of life they had just made it to the base of the Order of Purification when a figure came charging in. It was a person wearing a really battered armor and they came right up and Jack could feel a hostile gaze coming from beneath the helmet. Yunacas stopped and said "Sister I found whose behind all of this. It's Father."

 

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