Chapter 50: Beliefs
They found themselves inspecting the exterior of the church, they stood outside the building, the first thing they noticed was its tall steeple that thrusted out unto the sky, sifting their eyes down, it had hard sleek walls that were tiled in blue.
On the gate entrance it had an arch doorway, festooned with white and blue floral patterns. A straight pavement to the church doors divided the clear garden. Atop the garden there sat a chalked colored, marble figure of Melias, the chiseled architecture exudes her divine beauty, she gripped a sophisticated designed sword, on her other arm, her fingers asunder and a spherical energy ball was on top of it. On her back, her angelic wings composed of thousands of feathers spread out wide.
The sword was said to be the sword of righteousness, Valenxia. On her other arm was a light spell.
When they finally stepped on the crystal floor of the church, a smooth noise reverberated inside the chamber. Above, it had golden chandeliers that hanged tight, from where they stood a carpet were headed straight into the altar. Besides the dark blue carpet were the chairs that lined up uniformly. Currently the holy temple was at the peak of its serenity, it was quiet and calming.
When she sifted her eyes across the room, Celina got startled, she saw Blue on the corner, brooding with his arms crossed. Celina's eyebrows jolted, she pointed at Blue. "Hey why are you here?"
Blue glanced at her with a sigh. "Woman you're here huh? Just when I thought I found the most peaceful place." He smacked his lips.
Samantha stepped forward, her eyebrow lifted up and her lips were curved. "What did you just call her?" Her tone was upset.
Blue grunted. "Does it matter what you call certain things?"
Samantha stomped her foot, she growled. "You must be one of those men who thinks women are the same as objects!" She hissed.
Celina grabbed her shoulder from behind. "Now, now Samantha, talking with him will do you no good, let's just proceed." She calmed her down.
Samantha huffed a lungful of air, and was steered away by Celina. They went close in front of the altar, right there, they revered Malias miniature statue that sat sternly atop a dais.
The stained glass behind it casted a smudge of rainbow lights upon the altar. They kneeled infront of the altar, they prayed as they held a satisfied face, feeling the tranquility of the entire room.
Celina knew Samantha was a frequent church goer who always followed its rules in its every single detail. Her hardworking nature on the church must have earned her such title.
Celina eyed Samantha for a bit.
Samantha then cleared her throat, without even turning her head to Celina, she noticed her motions. "Celina, focus on your prayer."
Celina got startled a bit, she returned her head to her front. After their prayer they then sat comfortably on their spot, their head were tilted up as they mused the dais.
Samantha sighed. "Despite our tribulations our Goddess is only testing us, there is still hope, she still hasn't forsaken us. Because I believe like thousands of years ago, she will return."
Celina nodded to her words."I pray that someday there will be a time where everything will return to what it once was.."
Blue snickered on the corner of the church. "What a naive fools."
Samantha knitted her brows, she stood back up, sneering as she turned to Blue. "What did you say?"
Blue snorted scoffingly. "As long as humans are alive, this turmoil will never last. Its true that you might solve this problem, but another will arise and then another, it's an endless cycle of pain and agony." He gave them a glare.
Celina sighed. "Geez Blue, shut your trap."
Blue cackled villainously. "No, I feel like dropping some truths on you fools."
Samanth clenched her fist. "What do you mean truth? The only truth is to follow the word of the Gods and Godesses." She closed her eyes. "Because I know that she will never abandon us."
Blue smacked his lips, disproving her words. "Full of contradictions, what do you mean never abandon? You humans are suffering, and dying. Even if everyone of you become piles of corpses, trust me your imaginary god will never come and save you. The only one who can save you, is yourselves."
Samantha scowled, she barked. "What did you say?! You must be a heretic!" She gripped her hilt tight.
Blue guffawed menacingly. "Heretic? Ah yes, I heard of that term before." He smirked crookedly to Samantha. "Those are the terms that you religious wing nuts give to others in case you couldn't win an argument. Not to mention, you would also kill them if they wouldn't accept your foolish doctrines."
Samantha trudged forward, her steps echoed across the floor.
Celina then blocked Samantha's from coming close, she shook her head. "Samantha don't give in." She then swallowed her saliva as her grip were firm. "I hate to say this Samantha, but I think Blue has a point. I also despised the crusades once, since they were strict and they burned people if they won't believe in the doctrine."
Samantha gasped, she was in a trance as she gazed at her. "Celina, I'm disappointed in you. Those heretics that were burned were loyal followers of Zalgan, they were also a threat to the Cathedral and the entire church."
Celina steered her eyes away. Her voice tiny. "But.. If you kill them what does it prove?"
Samantha narrowed her eyes, her tone heavy. "Celina you do know that it is a necessity to protect the church and its doctrines. If nothing is done the teachings of those heretics will only corrupt the mind of many."
"I know what you mean but taking someone's life is kinda extreme just because of an ideological difference." Celina said.
"I never expected a light mage to speak such words." Samantha's voice were reeking in dismay. "As a light mage you should know how important our Goddess is."
Samantha then turned her irked eyes to Blue. "And you, take back your words."
Blue snorted. "You couldn't win through reason so you're resorting on such antics, never saw that coming."
Celina turned to him, she stomped her foot. "Hey Blue, if you have nothing nice to say just shut your trap and respect her feelings."
Blue cackled, he sprang up from his seat. "I figured it would be a waste of strength to talk with the close-minded. He sighed and tread away from the church. "See you later woman."
Samantha sighed hard as she facepalmed. "For the sake of our friendship Celina, I'm gonna overlook what you said, don't ever say that again." She said heavily as though intimidating, and trudged away from her sight.
Celina was left alone, she strolled on the streets with her head bent low, she was heading to Pelvin, currently, it was her only place to go. In a sudden, an arm grabbed his shoulder, she got surprised, however when she whirled she noticed it was just Skylar. "Whew, I got startled there for a second Sky." She chuckled nervously.
Celina noticed Skylar was flanked by two people, one who she recognized as Sethan, the old mage who went to Lord Helrick's mansion, the other one was a younger mage. Both of them wore white robes with its hems tinted in red.
"Sky who are they?" She said.
Skylar gave a nod. " I came looking for you this morning and here you are. And I brought these mages from the mage council."
"Why did you find me? And what are they for?"
Skylar sighed, she flicked her forehead, she winced a bit as a response, he chuckled. "Silly, I'm gonna have them unseal Gamiz' spell."
Celina scratched her hair, covering up her blunder. "If Don couldn't pull it off, I doubt they can."
Sethan stepped forward, he smiled lopsidedly after he recognized her. "Could you be the one back at the mansion?" His tone was light. "But I feel somewhat offended for you to take me lightly."
Celina shook her hands infront of him, attempting to take back her words. "I didn't mean it that way. But I would be willing to let you try."
Sethan smiled, he grabbed her arm. "Well then let's go to the council."
Celina was guided in infront of a wide building hewn by bricks, it was a miniature version of their academy, since judging by its size it had only few classrooms. After entering the gate they tread on the stone slabbed court yard.
It was spacious, she turned her head to one side, where the fire mages were shooting out fire balls on dummies, on the other side, what seemed to be nature mages who conjured saplings from the ground, letting it grow into the size of a small bush. Her attention was quickly stolen on the earth mages' side, they were rowdy as they were manipulating the rocks, but the lightning mages were relatively silent as they did their work.
Attentions quickly gathered on them as they ambled on the courtyard. The heads around them turned to them one by one, and Celina gulped as she became self conscious. Then a group of mages quickly jogged to their side. "Co-could you be? The light mage, Celina?"
Celina nod reluctantly. "Ye-yeah."
One of his friends, smacked his head. "Hey look at him, isn't this guy a big shot, it's Skylar the Frost Serpent."
"Awesome, what are they doing here?"
Skylar stared at them calmly, but he ignored the loud bunch.
"Anyway man, forget about him. I never thought the light mage is such a beauty." He said with a doe eyes towards her.
Another student approached Celina's side, she got startled. "Umm, Celina if you have a time please go on a date with me." He closed his eyes as his face shrunk.
Celina stared at them with a confused look. "Umm--"
"Go away!" Sethan bursted, he then sighed. "Don't bother our guests."
They got surprised. "Yes sir, pardon us." They then fanned out in all directions and returned to their tasks.
Regardless their glances were still there, but her breath came loose after they entered the building, she was guided into a room. Sethan's study room perhaps? On one side, a bookshelf leaned against the wall, on another side were paper and diagrams stuck on the flat wall. The paper had runes written on it, others were diagrams of magic circles and figures. She could only understand one or two, but the rest were gibberish for her.
Celina felt a tinge of shiver when she noticed the mage students were peeking through the window. She sighed as she struggled to ignore them.
Sethan faced Celina, upclose he touched her forehead, and from nothingness, runes appeared and thickened on her skin. She took her arm and inspected them upclose. His finger was writing on the air, the runes glowed as he did. Few minutes later, Sethan leaned back, he shook his head. "This is a one way seal." Sethan said.
Celina gasped. Though she expected it but never wished for it. The one way seal meant it could not be unsealed by everyone else, and there was also a chance that not even the sealer himself could do it.
Skylar sneered. "That Gamiz."
"It's not impossible to unseal this but make a choice, either we purge the seal right now or you still are hoping this can be undone, it's not even guaranteed that you can unseal this even if you find Gamiz?"
Celina swallowed her saliva, she knew purging the seal has a very large drawback, because once the seal is purged, all of her learned skills will be erased. She had to relearn everything from scratch.
Celina's crystal eyes shone in determination. "My goal will not change. I will still go to Lanzud and confront Gamiz."
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