Chapter 253 (1/2)
Book 2, Chapter 110 – The Mission Begins
Teal Ridge was a village situated in the south of the region, at the base of the sector's largest e, where there lived a population of siroves, and hunted the fields – perfectly self-sufficient For the last decade, they'd had little contact with the outside world The stringent doctrines of faith and decorum were lax here, a place of rarely found serenity
The village's buildings and layout were exactly like any other elysian settle beautiful craftsmanshi+p and a tendency toward aesthetics Of course, it wasn't nearly as grand and complicated as the dos were five or sixsix districts They were fan shaped, interspersed with pockets of green and separated by roads The districts curved around so that the whole village was arranged in a circle, like a plate In the very center of the village was its only church
The Church of Divine Brilliance here Teal Ridge's faith was centered It was a place of prayer, healing, and serhout Skycloud domain, which enjoyed considerable influence Devotees prayed to the Gods of Light and War, and in fact the Knights of Splendor were an offshoot of their order
A ten year old boy squealed with delight as he played with a pigeon outside the church doors A arb approached the child and s Obviously your sister still has a lot to teach you”
“Hey, I was looking for you! You said you wanted me to join the church, why didn't you keep your word?”
“Don't rush, now You're still too young We can talk about it once you're older”
The boy pulled a long face, displeased with the man's answer
The ently shook his head Caelue His sister had shown an interest in the organization since she was fourteen and joined Caelu both brother and sister join at the same time was inappropriate
When the clergy of worry It'd been a month since they had any word from the Dark Atom Word had come from the capital that their forces had been dealt a serious blow, but any specifics were hard to come by
The anizations actions within the doe's Church of Divine Brilliance was their stronghold Teal Ridge was an unassu place few people paid any mind to, and the church especiallyas a priest afforded hie and cover he needed to perform his duties without fear, and had allowed hi time Hundreds of new soldiers had been enlisted over the years and sent out to other towns One day they would prove invaluable
“Oh , look! It's an airshi+p!”
He heard soe didn't have docks, much less shi+ps to moor there If someone wanted to travel by shi+p they would need to firsteven the ht here
Warshi+ps were completely different from their merchant or civilian counterparts For starters they were quite a bit larger, and equipped with energy pylons they used for attack and defense Once combat broke out, those pylons were used to create defensive shi+elds or fire bolts of energy Obviously, neither s As se was, even merchant shi+ps hardly every crossed their airspace So as a warshi+p doing here?
“Caeluo home” He took the child by the aro back out, do you understand? Don't ask questions, just go Now!”
He let go and the boy took off Once the clergyman was sure the child would listen, he disappeared back into the church Quickly he clian to chime the enormous bell within
The warshi+p slowly descended through the chill h, a burst of light shot out froround, a sort of cord Soldiers bearing round below and quickly took control of the area
When had this sleepy ha like this? The peaceful town's serenity was instantly shattered
“What's going on?”
“What's all this noise outside?”
“No tiet ready to run!”
The priests were all gathered together The eldest aest only fourteen A young girl The man in white rushed passed the to conceal their weapons The young girl watched the chaos ide, worried eyes “What happened?”
The clergyun into her hands “You have to come with us Keep yourself safe!”
“U-uncle, what about you?”
He shut the heavy door without giving her an answer The others grabbed her and quickly set off down the secret passage Froyhed in relief, but also pain Thoughts of his oife and child flashed through his head For eight years he'd hidden here a the elysian people, built a family Ties like those weren't cut at a moment's notice
This church held toofiles on their many members If they were found, then all was lost
By now the warshi+p was hovering just over the church A great light filled the nave, enveloping everything Then, thirty figures appeared before the door of the church They were all in different garb, not like nornizable armor
Demonhunters!
The clergyman heaved the door shut and locked them
His hands fumbled for the self-destruct controller, attacked to explosives set around the church He pressed the button