Chapter 496: Cleansing Chapel (2/2)
Once they entered, Raven was met with a rather humble interior of the chapel. The floor was marbled, the walls are seemingly made out of bricks and the ceiling is wooden. There is a faint smell of flowers and medicine inside, a start contrast of what the outside smells like.
The chapel seems to radiate a calm and relaxing feeling to anyone who enters it. The temperature inside was warm, the kind that seeps through one's soul. It was very comfortable.
”The Cleansing Chapels are a very recent addition to Tartarus.” Monica stated as she started introducing Raven to the facility. ”The oldest chapel built so far is merely a decade old, compared to the other facilities nearby and all over Tartarus, it's nothing much.”
”The idea of the Cleansing Chapels were introduced by Senior Brother Theodore - the 8th Fire Keeper.” Monica said as she looked at Raven with a smile. ”Oh, right. Flame Keeper is a title given to the people who guards and worships the Flame of Olympus. As for what the Flame of Olympus is, you'll know it when time comes.”
”Anyway, where are again? Oh right!” Monica chuckled, ”Senior Brother Theodore is said to be 'pampered by the Flames of Olympus' therefore it gave him a unique seed of flame, which is called the Cleansing Flame. And with the Cleansing Flame as the foundation, he brought the idea of Cleansing Chapels to life.”
The two arrived further inside the chapel where Raven got to see what the Cleansing Chapel really does.
He saw several beds occupied by injured people. Most of them are resting whilst covered with bandages, some were being attended to by the people who wore the same jacket as Monica.
Raven guessed that these people must be the other Cleansers. These people wore black jackets with a symbol of a white flame sewn on the back. They're also wearing face masks, white cap, fingerless gloves and boots on top of their sect uniforms.
He witnessed the Cleansers doing their job, they hovered their hands on a particular area of their patient's body. As their eyes were closed, they chanted some words and their hands will glow brightly as white flames covered it.
As they hovered their hands on their patients, black tendrils of smoke will come out of the patients body, which will then disperse through the air and disappear.
”As you can probably guess by now, these people are Cleansers just like me. The flame that you see them use is the Cleansing Flame which was given to Senior Brother Theodore.” Monica explained.
”The Cleansing Flame has unique properties. While its temperature is weaker compared to other flames out there, this flame purifies evil completely.”
”I trust that you are familiar with the different kind of devils out there so I'll make this simple.” Monica stated, ”The Devils are born from the Devil Emperor himself. Each of them is connected to him, each carries its powerful will and is completely loyal to him. If, under the unfortunate event of, you or your other Unit Members had clashed with a more powerful devil and had your lives nearly taken away from you, there is a great chance that you will be poisoned by the Devil Emperor's will.”
”You've heard our history I assume, and thus you can tell how powerful the Devil Emperor truly is. It's will was enough to completely change this landscape, so much so that not even a single strand of grass dared to exist in this place.”
”Poisoned by the powerful will of the Devil Emperor, its almost certain that you will be converted into a Devil yourself. Trust me, I've seen it happening once, and it's never been a pretty sight. It's very heartbreaking too.” Monica said with a melancholic tone.
”The will of the Devil Emperor will turn you mad, so much so that you won't recognize anyone anymore. You will kill everyone that the will is telling to kill, and no matter how fight back, you have no hopes of ever winning to that.”
”Most of the disciples who are tasked to clear the Devil Emperor's Pagoda suffers from this. One day, you will see your fellow disciples, driven mad and insane by the Devil Emperor's powerful will. You will be forced to kill them, and it never feels good when you do that.”
As if suddenly awoken from her stupor, Monica shook and flashed a smile at Raven.
”Oh my, look at me. Being all dramatic and all. Sorry about that.” She said, ”Anyways, casualties cannot be avoided. Like I said, when you nearly died from fighting a powerful devil, its almost certain that you will ne poisoned by the will of the Devil Emperor.”
”From then on, it us - the Cleansers, who will take it from there. Through the help of the Cleansing Flame, we can 'exorcise' the poisonous will out of someone's body and save them from the awful fate of turning into a mindless slave.”