He made no declaration of his arrival, and few noticed him. The two quietly arguing priests did however, and quickly stepped away from each other. going back to supervising the crowd of refugees. The guards closest to him straightened up, and I could see the grips on their spears tighten. As I observed him, I noticed a faint but present aura seeping out of him. The man had restrained it carefully, but failed to escape the attention of someone already watching.
It was deep and fathomless, formless yet still gripping me. The world seemed...brighter around him. Larger and more full. I knew what this feeling was, had had it described to me several times from the pages. Sainthood. This man before me was a Transcendant.
I let out a hiss and swallowed my saliva at the realization, but then the Saint's eyes flickered over and met mine. I had received the tiniest warning from his micro-expression shifting, allowing me to look down an avoid direct eye contact, but that second of connection caused goosebumps to break out across my body. Despite my reaction, I knew I had been discovered, but didn't make any moves.
'So what if I was observing you? I just happen to be more sensitive than others, a little surprising but nothing strange!'
Sure enough, the man only gave me a courtesy once-over before he stopped paying any attention. Then, perhaps satisfied or merely bored, he turned and left through an archway at the back. Licking my lips, I began to seriously think about what to do. Saving the temple and as many people as possible was the obvious goal, but how would I accomplish that? I wasn't even a Dormant yet, I had just received the Spectator Sequence as an advance payment from the Curator.
While I could possible bamboozle and trick a few guards or vagrants with my empath abilities, it offered no means to divert a horde of unyielding freaks soon to be barrelling down on our doors. 'Heh, Spectator acting like a Swindler, who would have thought?'
Right, first and foremost: exploring the area. I saw no obvious symbols or insignias on the clothes of the two priests or half-a-dozen guards, and the vison didn't depict the temple with any particular God's heraldry. Deeper in the temple was sure to do so however, so I got up and dusted off my knees. Discreetly making my towards the arch the Saint had entered and exited through, one of the guards spotted me but said nothing, just giving me a threatening glare to make sure I didn't try anything.
I flashed him a harmless smile, or tried to, and I guess it convinced him since he just snorted and turned away. Passing through the opening revealed multiple branching corridors, no signs or directions in sight.
My keen eyes picked up a smattering of footsteps on all of them, so that method was useless, until I just barely picked out one pair different from the others. While it could have just been my imagination, I had no other leads and so I began to walk the same hall as the footprints.
It led me deeper into the temple, and carvings began to appear on the walls. They were all nonsense to me, vague and mighty figures battling each other, or inhuman beasts, or strange shadowed objects. It was as likely to just be a generic myth as a true telling of a battle, so I paid little attention to them.
After nearly two minutes, the corridor opened to another chamber, but this one had a door leading to what seemed to be a garden, based on the green and sunlight visible through the arch. The chamber I was currently in held far more allure to me though, because it had a statue centred in front.
A colossal humanoid, its gender was vague but seemed to be leaner towards masculine. A loose robe that only fully covered the chest and torso, leaving the arms uncovered and legs loose, was drabbed across him, and his face was blank except for the inscribed mouth, nose and eyes. An expressionless and detached deity, purposelessly genderless and open to interpretation. Though I doubt any mortal dared to due so.
His identity was known to me not through this statue, but the emblem of a blazing sun above it. The Sun God, the Lord of Light, the Deity of Passion and Destruction.
'Well, that makes my being here all the more intriguing'
From what the Spell showed me, the fate of this temple was to be consumed by the forces of darkness. Yet until the end, I saw no depictions of resistance or struggle. This temple worshipped the Sun God, not the Goddess of War, but I still expected a bitter fight till the end, especially against such profaned enemies. But the light was extinguished and all souls seeking its comfort destroyed.
'Did something go wrong? Did the temple leadership perish before the final battle, leaving the survivors unable to conjure effective resistance? Did that Shadow Awakened have something to do with it? Hmm, I can't remember if Shadow and Sun have any deep-rooted hatred towards each other. War certainly seemed to despise Her brother, but the rest are somewhat ambiguous. Sunny and Nephis are are a pretty shitty example to use too...'
I sighed and turned to enter the garden, the room barren of anything else of use and at least one question answered. The garden was as beautiful as it appeared from the outside, glowing in the amber sunlight with birds and insects chirping beyond view. At the centre was a pool of water, no fountain, but rather seemed to bubble up from underground.
The water was also beautiful, a honeyed gold that shimmered. The middle-aged Saint was there, on both knees and seemingly in prayer. He leant forward and scooped up the water with both hands, not drinking it but rather washing his face. I moved towards him slowly but resolutely. I had no doubt he had detected my presence, so I didn't want to appear weak or timid. When I was only seven or six feet away, he called out to me.
"You seem to be lost, boy. There is nothing in this garden for your kind."
"Am I being kicked out?" I asked with a raised eyebrow. "Is this place forbidden to visitors?"
"No," the Saint surprisingly chuckled at that, though it was sharp and short. "I merely mean that there is quite literally nothing for you, a wanderer, to find or do here. This garden is just an ordinary spot, one I visit because I like the tranquillity. There's nothing special about the pool either-it's just an underground spring that was blessed by the Venerable One some time ago. So, you should head back before your friends or family become worried."
"I'm alone," I state calmly, causing the Saint to turn and look at me for the first time. "My village...it was destroyed in the conflict. I was out gathering wood for the fire when it happened. Apart from me, there were only a few survivors but we later split up."
My confidence to lie came from Spectator abilities, as well as the fact Saints can't automatically see through all falsehoods. While Saint Tyris had interrogated Sunny, he had managed to fool her with his half-truths and misdirection. I was also banking on the thought that the Saint wouldn't bother to peer too deep into my backstory-why would he, after all?
Sure enough, he sighed sorrowfully and shook his head. The motion reminded me of Father Malachi, and for a moment my throat tightened. "I am sorry for what you have gone through, child, I truly am," he began. "For the past few months, the world seems to have gone mad.
The followers of the Gods have turned on each other, the armies of the underworld pillage and destroy everything they can get their hands on, undeath and vile evil even I cannot comprehend breeds unopposed amongst the carnage and through it all the Lord is silent. Several of my brothers and sisters fear that we have been forsaken."
I looked at the Saint in surprise, not expecting him to just unload all his fears and doubts onto a random and complete stranger. Furthermore, the fact his faith wavered in the Sun God was a massive shocker: while maybe not as much as the followers of War, the believers of Sun in the Chained Isles were still zealous and demented in their belief. Seeing this on my face, the Saint gave a wry smile.
By this point, I was doubting my own judgement: what I thought was a no-nonsense stern old man seemed to actually be closer to a kind, fatigued uncle. "Are you taken aback by the truth in my words? I myself could scarcely believe them when the thoughts first appeared. But as time went by and no response cam from neither the Lord nor the Venerable One, and the reports grew more and more horrifying, I came to understand that we were facing a greater scourge than even what was present in the Age of Heroes."
I fell silent at this, an inkling of why the temple had fallen so easily in the original timeline. If their strongest fighter was already pessimistic and prepared to give up, what chance did the weaker have? Taking a deep breathe and steeling myself, I stepped closer and spoke with a lid voice-
"Sir, I beg of you, please allow me to become a Priest!"