"Child, do you want to join our church? If you do the blessings of the Lord will give meaning to your life. No matter your age, you are not too young to serve our Lord!"
Donned in glistening golden robes, a man who seemed to be a high-ranking member of a Church began saying while his hands were clasped together in prayer; this was all while a large procession consisting of more than three dozen people wearing either golden robes or armors stood behind him and stared forward with shining eyes.
All their attention was focused on a youth in animal fur who looked to be in his earlier teens and was standing in front of a village entrance. However, one could see immature features across this child's face that suggest he was quite younger than that despite his appearance and build.
This child had messy black hair that was tied into a ponytail. On his back, he carried a large stack of thick firewood, which would make one ponder how this little child looked so at ease carrying them.
With his innocent eyes, this little boy stared at these strangely dressed people with a weird expression.
The boy had just been about to enter his village after a trip out collecting firewood when he heard a loud noise behind him. After turning around, he saw four massive horses hurtling down his village's pathway while pulling a carriage. And behind it was even more people on horses.
If it wasn't for the fact the boy saw his father defeat animals larger than these horses, he would have been scared witless.
After the boy stopped to watch this man get out of the carriage, he then listened to his incomprehensible words.
Not understanding a single word uttered by the man, the boy simply turned and continued walking back to his village, following one of the many rules his father told him of...
Never talk to strange people.
However, unbeknownst to these two parties, this little interaction marked a massive change in this world's destined future.
The man who requested the boy to join his Church saw his chosen informant leaving so he began to panic a little.
"Wait, little boy! Is it that you can't understand me?!"
The man yelled before he began fiddling with the diamond-shaped necklace he had on. However, his face soon became red with anger as the device wasn't working as he was told it would.
"In the name of our Lord Ga-On, give me strength!!"
The man cried out as he ripped the necklace off in frustration. He then turned to one of the men in the procession who was wearing golden robes and growled.
"Deacon Ainz, you were the one responsible for procuring these multilingual devices. Now that it doesn't work, are you going to take responsibility if this excursion the Cardinal entrusted us doesn't go well?"
The man named Deacon Ainz shivered nervously.
"Bishop Adalhard, I-I…"
As Deacon Ainz stuttered, Bishop Adalhard ignored him and turned to a woman in the procession before he glared at her. Without him having to say anything, this woman hurriedly took off her multilingual device and handed it over.
After wearing the necklace, Bishop Adalhard said.
"Go after that boy, we need to learn more about this village. Our mission to seek out these barbaric Tribes is the orders of our Cardinal himself, so we must complete this mission at all costs."
"Yes, Bishop!"
"Yes, Bishop!"
One male and one female from the procession who were dressed in golden armor with swords strapped to their hips, charge at the boy; one of them yelling.
"Child, stop! We need to ask you some questions!"
The little boy from before was quite some distance away but these two caught up to him in an instant. It was speed unfitting of a regular human.
However, as the man reached out to grab the boy's shoulder, his hand suddenly missed its target causing him to stumble forward.
The boy was then seen standing several meters away from where he initially stood; glaring at the man.
The man and woman seeing this child's speed had their pupils contracted to pin-sized needles.
As paladins from one of the Seven Great Churches, Church Ga-On, they were warriors who went through rigorous training to serve the Church. And despite the two graduating at the lowest of low among their batch of Paladin Warriors, the man, and woman have long surpassed the realm of what a normal human was capable of.
So, how could a brat in this village have speed on par with them, who have trained their entire lives up until this point? And that stack of firewood he was carrying on his back, it should be at least twice his weight!
The man and woman were momentarily dumbfounded by this abnormal kid.
While the two were still in their stunned state, the boy suddenly turned and dashed to the village while yelling.
"Dad!"
Snapping out of their dumbfounded state, the two paladins rush to explain they mean no harm, but at that moment, a large shadow suddenly cascaded over them from behind.
"Ah! Monst-!!"
With a terrified expression, the man went to yell, but his face was suddenly grabbed by a large hand. This hand was so big it fully wrapped itself around the man's head and still left space for a large watermelon to fit.
The woman in response immediately drew her sword, but the eyes of this 'beast' landed on her and a pressure she had never felt before caused her knees to buckle in an instant.
No, she had felt this type of pressure before. During the final trials of graduating to become a Paladin Warrior, they were required to withstand the holy might of a top-ranked Paladin in their Church.
However, this monster in front of her not only had a greater pressure than that senior, but it had an aura of a tyrant that sent shivers down her spine.
The woman dropped her sword and fell backward onto her butt. She was scared, more scared than she ever was in her life. It felt like she was going to die.
However, this beast suddenly opened its mouth and spoke.
"I have no intention of harming you people, I just want to know why you were after my son. However, if you don't give me a proper explanation, I cannot guarantee that I won't take action."
With a thud, the male paladin was dropped to the ground, but he quickly scrambled back out of fear.
After listening to those words, what he and the woman thought was a beast suddenly began to shrink from its enormous size to the height of a normal man.
A rather good-looking and shirtless man.
Upon seeing him, the women's fear-filled expression was momentarily replaced with a dazed look. She would have never suspected that a man so good-looking would appear in front of her all of a sudden.
Chiseled jawline, messily flowing hair, and a lean body. This man resembled the little boy from before but older; though he didn't look a day over twenty-five.
However, despite this man's appearance, something told the woman it wasn't natural. A normal human shouldn't have such a perfect appearance.
Along with that, he seemed strange, and as the people in the village with peculiar green markings over their bodies came to look at what was going on, that strangeness began to increase because he looked completely different from them.
No, he and his son were both the strange ones in this village.
"So, are you going to answer my question?"
The man's tyrannical pressure from before returned, causing the male and female paladins to shiver. The man also turned to look at the procession; specifically at the smiling Bishop Adalhard.
Adalhard immediately stepped forward and with an amicable smile still plastered on his face he introduced himself.
"Great sir, I am one of the many Bishops from the Church of Ga-On which is one of the Seven Great Churches. I am here to spread the word of our Lord and the teachings of our Church to Ibbian Tribes like yours."
"Oh? And here I thought we were called Barbarian Tribes? I must have misheard you from before."
The handsome man said this with a raised eyebrow and Bishop Adalhard's smile faltered a bit.
'He heard me? But he wasn't nearby. I didn't sense him within a five-hundred-meter radius. To hear our conversation from such a far distance is not something a normal human could do. I heard the Indigenous Ibbian Tribes gained strange powers after living in the Unholy Mountain Range, but this man's power is not what I have heard of or seen personally.'
Bishop Adalhard then thought about how the man had suddenly appeared within his senses like a ghost to grab the male paladin's head; as well as his ability to transform into a miniature giant.
'This village we picked to carry out our mission will be an arduous one. Oh Lord Ga-On, guide this child of yours in the right direction so I may fulfill the duty I was bestowed with, Amen.'
While Adalhard was saying a small prayer internally, the handsome man said once again.
"We don't need the teachings of your Church, but I need to ask. How did you get past the barrier to enter our home?"
The handsome man said this with a freezing tone of voice.
Adalhard's reaction internally was one of shock. The information was that these indigenous tribes did not know about the lands outside of the Unholy Mountain Range, and neither about the barrier that traps them inside.
But this man knows.
'Lord Ga-On give me more strength.'
Adalhard's prayers increased.
While this scene was unfolding, the little boy from before watched it for a brief moment before continuing on his way.
He hurried past the well-built but simple wooden houses in the village, all while a few people called out to him with familiarity. This seemed to be a common occurrence.
After some time, the boy reached his house which wasn't any different from the others he had passed, but was weirdly located on the outskirts of the village; just over seven hundred meters from the village square.
After passing the small gate that surrounded the yard of the house, the boy paused for a moment as he suddenly missed stepped.
He looked down to see why his footing shifted, and he saw a large footprint with small spiderweb-like cracks spreading from it.
The boy examined how bigger the foot was compared to his own, which resulted in an inexplicable emotion rising in his heart.
"When will I be as strong as Dad? I really can't slack off."
With a serious expression, the boy went around to the back of his house and drop the large stack of firewood from his back causing a loud bang.
Without wasting much time the boy then went into a small makeshift shed nearby and brought out a large ax that was about twice his size.
The ax left a deep trail in the grass and dirt as the boy dragged it over to a chopping block in the middle of the backyard. After fixing the black ankle and wrist bracelets around his hands and feet, the boy placed one of the many firewoods on the chopping block and started his cutting.
His movements were slow but precise. Each block of wood would split in half with one of his strikes. The ax would also create a windstorm throughout the backyard as the boy swung it down; showing that the weight of the ax was absurd.
It didn't take long for the boy to go through half of the wood he had carried back as his speed of chopping would get faster and faster.
The boy was soon breathing heavily and was drenched in sweat, but his perseverance seemed boundless as he continued without lessening his pace.
Though of course he wasn't entirely focused on his task, his mind would wander back to those strange people that came to his village. He wanted to stay and watch like everyone else, but he had a daily training routine he couldn't break under any circumstances; else his father would give him an earful.
As the only child of a single father who was perfect in every way imaginable, in this environment, the boy felt a heavy sense of pressure to live up to the expectations his father had of him but never voiced.
So he tried to ignore why those people from before came to his village and focus on his task.
However, this was the day that could have said to spark it all.
A journey full of bloodshed.
A path full of revenge and struggle to let go of suffocating hatred.
On that journey further into the future, the boy would look back and wonder how different things could have turned out if he had paid a little more attention to those Evangelists.
Maybe if he was just a little stronger… like his father. Maybe things wouldn't have turned out like how they would.