Aesteros and Xiang Zainan stood on the now barren battle-field. The tension between them seemingly strong enough to ignite a flame.
The last assistant priest left, Leonard, stood all the way to the right. He was a mage who specialized in healing and support-type scripture. He had been too stunned to cast any support or healing spells earlier on in the battle, but Thalia's death woke him from his stupor.
Finally, after Aesteros had truly sunk in deep inside of himself Thalia's death, and the magnitude of the appearance of this intelligent evil spirit - he decided right then and there he would end this.
There were dozens of official languages that were home to the many different continents and countries in this world. For instance, this village's non-official language was Kauchy-dialect.
However, some of the words of the words carried mystical effects with each one said.
During the Ancient times, it was said that the tongue of the dragons carried the incoherent messages sent by Deities. Then, humans would use the parts of the language that could be replicated through their tongue, to chant magic words that garnered varying results. This new language was called Hades, and the words of Hades became taught to every persons who used the power of mana.
In the language of Hades, Aesteros began to chant the unsealing spell for his sceptre.
All Xiang Zainan could hear though were illogical disjointed ramblings that began to make his bacterial body convulse and tear apart a little.
Once Aesteros finished his chant, his sceptre began to glow with an otherworldy allure that made it appear as if the twin Suns of the world had become trapped in it. The glow even affected Xiang Zainan, whose vision could be said to be non-comparable to any living organism on the planet.
Xiang Zainan expanded the four wings on his back, crouching in a twisted version of a runner's position. Massive tentacles sprang from his back and grew shards of teeth and small eyes that aided in his vision. His flesh caving in on itself and forming back together in one horrific cycle.
The clouds overhead began to darken and at the first drop of rain, a sonic boom tore from both ends of the grounds. Aesteros' figure flickered in front of Xiang Zainan, producing an after-image in his wake.
Even though his abilities were greatly augmented due to the unsealing of his sceptre, his speed was due to the power boost Leonard has granted him from the sidelines.
He flung his high staff above him, and in one slick motion brought it down as it glowed with a vibrant white light. The attack closely resembled a lightning strike.
Xiang Zainan tried to tactfully avoid the incoming strike, but his gigantic body could not completely get out of the way in time.
"BANG"
Zainan's head exploded with bacteria and flesh spilling everywhere. Where his head should have been at was a 3 feet deep crater that crackled with residual energy.
Knowing that this wasn't the end, the priest immediately struck the blunt end of his staff into the ground and cast a purifying spell into the immediate vicinity. A cleansing aura that brought about a warm soothing sensation to living creatures was instantly felt, but to evil spirits and dark magic they were burned and repelled out of the area.
All of Xiang Zainan's remnant bacteria from his dragon body had been disposed of. He was now back to being his incorporeal spirit body, and thanks to the 'Blessed Eyes' spell, Aesteros could still track his whereabouts.
The separation between the two could be said to be approximately 13 and a half meters.
'The steady supply of soul power from the villagers has depleted, so I'm almost out of spare spirituality. If I keep using any more I won't even be able to sustain myself out here anymore. Time to regroup.'
Xiang Zainan then summoned some more of the villagers that could still fight to swarm Aesteros. Since he was a priest who had taken a vow, he definitely would try his best to not kill the village people, buying himself some time.
At that thought, Xiang Zainan quickly tracked Felix's location and spoke through one of his mutated crows near him. "Awaken."
Felix's eyes slowly opened and saw the absolute carnage that had taken place. Most of the villagers were either severely mutilated or knocked unconscious. He had thanked that all of the villagers hadn't came to the Salvation Temple or else it would've been a complete massacre of the people!
He slowly looked over to the crow and prostrated. "Great Lord Demise, I have done as you have asked! Why must you let so many of the village people be killed like this!"
Quickly thinking of something, Xiang Zainan channeled his inner charlatan and answered skillfully. "This is the price of un-pious faith. These people did not completely devote themselves to me, only to my power. If it were not for this plague then they probably would have regarded me as an evil spirit just as the heretics do."
The downpour of rain started to increase with lightning and thunder sounding off in the distance. He was now sitting there soaked in mud and water.
Felix slowly contemplated then understood.
'Their faith should have been more devout! They did not completely devote themselves to Lord Demise so this is what they deserve. I should spit on their corpses!'
Feeling guilty of having second thoughts, Felix slammed his head even deeper into the ground and yelled at the top of his lungs: "Please forgive my thoughts of heresy My Lord! I will continue to act on your will!"
Hearing this, Xiang Zainan felt slightly bad at how easy it was to convince him and even involve a child in a fight in the first place. But those thoughts quickly left his mind.
There was no room for pity in a God's heart after all. Plus, this next action could even be considered an act of mercy from the right perspective.
"You may rise and be forgiven. But, I am still weak from curing you all of the plague and need your assistance in this battle."
"But what could a lowly human like me do that would be of help to a great deity like yourself Lord?"
"You will consume the flesh of my divine messenger and absorb his powers. Once you do so, you shall be born anew and become one of 'My Blessed' - attaining power close to the divine!"
After hearing this, Felix with no hesitation whatsoever, picked up the crow and said "By your Will!".
He quickly started to eat what could be counted as his lunch.
Cutting off his connection with the crow at that moment, Xiang Zainan stood there surprised. 'I get that he is a malnourished orphan boy, but he did that way too enthusiastically.
Where Xiang Zainan currently was, Aesteros was growing tired of trying to incapacitate the villagers.The downpour of rain didn't seem to affect his movements as he still acted with lightning fast speed.
After repeatedly dodging strikes from pitchforks and smacking two villager's weapons down, he suddenly had a thought.
If they were using the powers of the evil spirit to augment their strength and magnify the ability of human regeneration, then he should be able to exorcise that spirits power.
"Be purified by the Lord's might!" He once again cast the purifying scripture enveloping the area within 6 meters with a warm and powerful sensation. It strengthened him but had adverse effects on the villagers.
They started dropping to the ground one by one with their skin leaking green smoke. All of them died on the spot. Aesteros' mouth hung low for a second, then like once before, he began to seethe with a palpable anger. "You filthy Spirit, How dare you use the corpses of these innocent people to satisfy your needs!"
Hearing this, Xiang Zainan couldn't help but chuckle in exasperation. 'I'm not the one who killed them, you did. I was just prolonging their lives with my bacteria by suppressing the plague that was about to take their lives. However, once you eliminated my essence from their bodies, death took its natural course on them and they succumbed to that dreadful disease.'
His thoughts were futile though, since Aesteros couldn't hear them. Even if he could, he would just count them as the malicious ramblings of an Evil spirit.
Controlling his rage once more, he finally locked onto Xiang Zainan's spirit body. Xiang Zainan however, was ready to fight once more since he had just received a nice meal of spirituality from the villagers thanks to him.
They soon became ready to battle once more, and as Aesteros began to summon his mana to recite more of his scriptures, loud and fast footsteps could be heard approaching the battlefield.
Since both Xiang Zainan and Aesteros now had enhanced vision, they could easily see what was headed toward them.
Xiang Zainan's emotions turned solemn and Aesteros began to devoutly pray to the Goddess of Salvation and ask why he must be put through such a tough trial.
In the distance, the rapidly approaching figure was none other than a 4 meter tall wolf, switching from running on all fours to just its two hind legs. Its mouth extended to its eyes on each side, with sharped venom-laced jagged teeth on the inside of it.
The wolf's claws were as long and sharp as daggers, with them being the color of a pitch black night. And in it's eyes was nothing but a wild hatred and malice, as if it regarded the entire world as its enemy.
Only one thing could come to Xiang Zainan's mind as he saw the rapidly approaching figure. 'A werewolf, or should I say My blessed Felix.'