Capítulo 174: Sanctuary
In the morning, Tycon took Invictus to Brume's local temple.
Sasha had been appeased early that morning, with a hearty meal of Tycon's specially made bacon, eggs, and potatoes crisped in pork fat. The young elf stuffed herself until she was bloated. Tycon took her by the hand and they walked about-- he wouldn't let her revert to snake form until she had digested a bit of her meal.
"Guild Invictus! Thank you for visiting our temple," a balding, middle-aged temple priest greeted. "The local saviors of Brume. You honor us with your presence."
"It seems word travels quickly, Sir Priest." Tycon politely introduced himself as Invictus' leader and elf-Sasha as his young ward.
The small temple was able to fit a congregation of 100 in its main hall, though Guild Invictus were the only visitors. A large central shrine held a retinue of major gods and a collection bin was set out, filled with a few paltry silver and copper coins. Tycon found it odd that the Tempe wasn't the largest building in Brume. Religion seemed a slight more important in the Free Nation and the Holy Country.
"Please, my name is Villiers." The priest smiled, a perfect picture of affability. "Are you searching for the half-elf that went messing a moon prior?"
[Villiers, Unranked Human Priest]
"We are here for a different issue." Tycon prodded the white-haired chocolate elf, "Go ahead, Sasha. Just like we practiced."
The young girl pouted, trying to hide. Tycon kept a gentle grip on her wrist and humanely held the back of her coat so she couldn't escape. The priest, as a credit to his profession, patiently waited, watching with a good-natured smile.
Sasha shyly looked up to the priest, her long ears twitching, "Sssss... Snake god. Offering."
She held up a squirrel skull. Tycon had guided her the previous night to melt the flesh away with elementary magic, leaving only the ivory.
The priest clapped his hands, "A wonderful offering, little Miss, to the... snake god, you say?"
"That's correct." Tycon nodded, carefully gauging the priest's reaction, "The young lady has come from far away. Is there a problem?"
"Oh, no, not at all. It's just quite rare."
The priest led Tycon and Sasha to an open room adjacent to the main hall. A shrine was set inside, far smaller than the one built for the main pantheon. The symbols inscribed upon it belonged to the various dark gods, not to any one in particular. Sasha respectfully placed her offering upon the shrine and closed her eyes to hiss a small prayer.
"The young girl is quite devout," the priest lauded.
Tycon shrugged, "She's had a troubled life."
"We must all go through trials and tribulations, young man," the priest nodded serenely.
Tycon did not bother correcting him. The priest did not use age as disrespect. On account that was about to ruin the poor man's week, he decided to remain polite.
Tycon stepped into the main hall with Sasha's ears bobbing as she hurried behind. Priest Villiers' jaw slackened as he saw dark candles set and lit on the shrine and the seats.
The stink of iron filled his nostrils. Blood had profaned every surface.
Lone handed Tycon the bucket of ram's blood and a brush, giving Tycon an anxious look of uncertainty. Tycon ignored it, "Thank you, Mister Lone."
"Wh-whaaaa-- WHAT are you DOING?!!" Villiers grabbed what was left of his hair as he yelled. "Invictus?? Please tell me what is going on!!"
Tycon painted a massive eight-pointed star upon a blank wall, then began to inscribe some infernal runes from his System-assisted memory, "I'm opening a Gate, Mister Villiers."
"You're opening a WHAT?!?"
Tycon paused. He turned to Villiers with furrowed brows, "...A Gate. I apologize, was I unclear?"
"Why are you opening a GATE in MY TEMPLE?!?" Villiers screamed.
Tycon frowned as he finished drawing the runes. It was a simple ritual-- which is why he was confident in its effectiveness, "This particular ritual has a higher success rate if it is performed upon profaned holy ground."
Lone's face was set into a deep grimace, "This sounds like a reeeeally bad idea, Boss."
Tycon hesitated, "Yes... yes it does, doesn't it?"
Turning to Sasha, he ruffled her white hair until a clump stuck upward, "Did you prepare that Sanctuary spell I told you about?"
Nodding obediently, she quietly muttered to herself. A thin film of protective light shrouded her. Tycon barely registered the mana disturbance. It seemed Sasarame was a naturally stealthy caster.
Tycon would have suggested Villiers do the same... but as he was Unranked, it was highly unlikely that he had a single First-Circle spell.
He took a deep breath, ignoring the priest who was holding onto his arms and pleading.
« System, display the recorded speech for summoning Lulu. »
The previous evening, Tycon had taken a passage of Infernal and transliterated it into the Common tongue to make it easier for him to speak. He spent some time cross-referencing it with the System's translations, to be reasonably certain about what he was summoning.
Thankfully, he didn't need a Mage. Lulu's spell was quite ingenious, only using the residual mana from profaning a temple. Also, he didn't need to read the script with religious fervor-- he only needed to speak the words normally. It was embarrassing enough to have to bloody a temple. Tycon would have considered a different way if he had to pretend to be a crazed devotee.
"Is-- is that Abyssal!? Are you speaking Abyssal?!?" Villiers was literally crying.
Tycon figured a normal-thinking priest would have probably tried to forcibly disrupt him with violence. Nearly any solution would perform better than Villiers' attempt to violently shake him.
Also, it was Infernal. The two languages were similar, but Infernal was more common. It was an odd laymen's mistake.
The temperature rose within the temple to skin-scalding hot. The doors shut closed and the windows revealed that the outside was filled with naught but pillars of bone amongst flames. The blood on the wall began to melt the stone, revealing infinitely long tunnels with hundreds of glowing eye glinting in the shadows.
A curly-haired platinum blonde woman emerged from the wall. Stepping onto the profaned shrine, her long slender legs were revealed by a high cut on her white robes. She licked her lips and spun the red-paper parasol in her hand, "Heya, Boss! Long time no see!"
The corner of Tycon's mouth lifted, "Welcome back, Lucifer."
PENSAMENTOS DOS CRIADORES 
CouchSurfingDragon
CouchSurfingDragon Here she is, the last hinted member of Sol Invictus!
Lulu, a curly-haired blonde demoness with a parasol! She prefers to be called Luci, but if an Invictus member speaks even half of her name aloud, sometimes strange things happen...
Capítulo 175: Validation of Beliefs
Lulu placed her two fingers upon her lips and blew a kiss.
Tycondrius resisted the urge to recoil as the cold shock of instinctual fear washed through his senses.
The temple's blessed shrine tore apart into 4 twisted black bodies formed of wood and hellfire. In perfect timing, they arranged themselves as descending stairs for Lulu to descend upon. With each step she took, their flesh sizzled against her naked soles and the scent of charcoal suffused the air.
"Sorry for dying, Boss! There was a defector in the forest!" Lulu licked her thick, pink lips, "You know~ what we do to traitors."
Tycon narrowed his eyes, "Are you... implying that you copulate with them?"
The demoness drew a long, sharp fingernail lightly across Tycon's chest, "Pleasure and pain go hand in hand, Ivory Prince."
"...Which means?"
"I tortured the shite out of her, then I murdered her. Kihihi!" The woman giggled as if she'd told the funniest joke in the world.
"Please!!" Priest Villiers begged with his forehead placed against the ground, "Master Invictus, I beg of you! Seal the portals!!"
Tycon pursed his lips and observed his surroundings. The rifts in the walls revealed a plagued, fire and brimstone hellscape beyond. The ceilings were starting to break away, falling up into a twisting vortex of sinner's screams.
He helped the priest up, "Don't be so cross, old priest. Look at the bright side."
Villiers held onto Tycon's shoulders, his nose filled with snot, and his eyes streaming unbroken rivulets of tears, "WHAT BRIGHT SIDE?!?"
Tycon grimaced, hiding his embarrassment that the ritual was more powerful than he expected, "Well... the hells exist-- a fact quite obvious, by now. By the process of induction... this proves that the heavens exist! Isn't it nice to have some validation in your beliefs?"
"Not like this, Master Invictus! Not like thiiiis!!" The priest trembled and put his head down, continuing to sob.
Tycon hesitantly pat the old man's shoulder, "Perhaps you're overreacting? You're in no danger. My guild appears to be doing just fine."
Sasha, the chocolate elf, tightly gripped the back of Tycon's cloak. She wore a look of curiosity and was especially interested in Lulu. Tycon didn't think she was frightened of the glimpses of the hell around her-- just generally shy.
Lone had his weapons at the ready, murmuring prayers to himself. He flinched at every infernal roar and agonized scream-- and there were many of them. That was probably a normal response.
Lone did keep his guard up as his training dictated, so Tycon chose not to reprimand him.
Wolfbanger... Ah. Priest Villiers had pointed at the weretouched boy with a shaking hand. Wolfbanger had opened the temple's small donation box and was stealing the tens of copper and odd silver piece inside.
"Mister Levi, while I commend your attention to detail... Can you not do that while the presiding priest is present?"
Wolfbanger turned momentarily to glare back, "I'll do what I want, Tycon. You can't stop me."
Tycon frowned. That was certainly not the response he was expecting.
The sound of glass shattering resounded in the temple and the air grew still as an uncomfortable silence reigned.
"Wh-what's happening?!" Villiers cried out.
Lulu idly rotated her parasol, "Oh! That's the sound of the barriers breaking! But don't worry, only the small fry will be able to get in."
On cue, a red-skinned, muscled humanoid began to crawl its way through one of the walls. It roared with slavering, pointed teeth, its yellowed eyes filled with hatred.
Tycon casually approached it, pressed his drawn pistol against its forehead, and fired a bullet into its skull. The demon collapsed, its body effectively blocking the portal, "That will do. Miss Lucifer, please seal the portals."
"Teehee! I love being a girl! Everyone's so nice to me, ehehe!"
Tycon decided not to comment, "Mister Levi! Mister Lone! On the portals, if you please."
Sasha took an offensive stance-- likely copied from one of the Sea Wolves in the fight against Liang Qiang. Tycon ruffled her hair, "Sasha, remain vigilant."
Barza Keith, the Lone Shadowdark, brutally struck a three-armed, flaming-handaxe throwing demon with a cross of his hammer. He ran from wall to wall, playing a game of whack-a-demon. The young man had utilized what little mana he could muster in lighting his wolf-hammers aflame.
How Lone expected fire to be effective on demons crawling out of a fiery hell was beyond Tycon's understanding. Still, the dark-iron hammers remained effective.
Lulu walked past the priest, winking at him seductively, before standing at the center of the temple hall. As she chanted in Infernal, her eyes glowed with a decidedly pink mana as she levitated with power, "Come on, my lovelies! Use my holes as you please!!"
Tycon coughed, "Lulu. Seal the portals. We want them sealed."
"Oh, right--" Lulu grinned sheepishly, "Last call! Enter my holes now or be blue-balled in the Eternal Battlefield for another thousand years!!"
Sasha looked to Tycon as if she wanted to ask something. A hard grimace set into Tycon's face. He would not willingly explain anything that the demon-woman said.
A small, lanky demon made it through a rift, dragging its greyish body across the floor and leaving a slimy trail.
Tycon fired a crossbow bolt into its eye, sneering in contempt, "Pathetic."
He kicked the mass back into the rift it had emerged from, reloading his crossbow with practiced motions.
He grabbed onto a demon woman's greasy hair and jammed his second loaded pistol into her mouth. She tried to mutter something unintelligible. Tycon shook his head, "I'm sorry, Miss. I'm not interested."
Pulling the trigger, the back of the woman's head burst in blood and brain. Tycon pushed the woman back into the rift and shook off the juicy bits splattered onto his left hand.
With the rate of demons flooding into the temple, Tycon's and Lone's efforts were not enough to stem the tide.
"Wolfrider! Your halberd would be *appreciated* about now."
Tycon scanned the walls. A few of the rifts had sealed, thanks to Lulu's spellcasting, Lone was still valiantly fighting against half-demons... that is... demons half in the temple and half out. If any of the demons escaped the temple, the fear and havoc they would wreak would be catastrophic to Brume.
An uneasy bile pooled in Tycon's gut. Had he miscalculated so keenly? Was the current strength of Invictus too low to seal the demon portals?
Turning back to Priest Villiers, the man was kneeling down, eyes shut, fervently praying to his gods with his holy symbol upraised. First to answer, however, was no god-- but Wolfbanger...
Seeing Villiers hold up the bronzed divine focus, the weretouched boy grabbed hold of it and wrenched it from the priest's hands.
PENSAMENTOS DOS CRIADORES
CouchSurfingDragon
CouchSurfingDragon
Lone - “Boss? The 4 charred wood-golems on fire... are they are allies or enemies?”
Tycon - “...Good question. Demons first, aberrant life forms given life by demonic powers after.”
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