Capítulo 32: Sinner
POV - Heimrich (1st)
Alas, the wretched are like worms, that inhabit the dank intestines of the earth!
I have pursued the sinner, Hegemaniac, even to the dark places of the earth where his violent kind take up habitation. In the dirt and cold of these tunnels, only the arm of the Lord and the assurance of his Covenant keep my voyage steadfast, and if not for being bound ever to the duty of exacting the Lord's wrath I would have long given up. I have even found a nest of bats, which took to the wing and rushed at me squawking and crying like demons in the black depths of Hell. And so they should applaud, for soon Hell shall gain another denizen, such a sinner as will be prized there.
In spite of these inhospitable climes, at least the Indian gentlemen at the entrance were helpful. They told me that Hegemaniac had set off into the deepest parts of this accursed cave, on a quest to claim the lecherous flesh of Cleopatra. Alas, the shamelessness of these sinners, their reckless sensuality! Their exuberant shows of Heaven-defying lust, that drove Faust to Helen and now drive Hegemaniac to the infamous adulterous Queen, Cleopatra! I say, the Lord's wrath at this sinner shall be a majestic flame of the utmost righteousness,
And yet many foolish Christians have said that the Lord is a God of love, not of wrath. But this is atheistic nonsense. Without the wrath of the Lord, what sin, debauchery, and worldliness should His flock be subjected to without stirring the shepherd's ire? That is not love, it is flattening of emotion, and such a Lord would be cold and uncaring indeed. Yea, the cosmos itself should be thrown out of equilibrium by the sheer weight of sin, like the scales of earthly justice are always weighed on one side by corruption and greed, but that the Lord's wrath and judgement have tempered the indignity of sin and shall condemn the sinful to the lake of fire. For in the Lord's indignance we see his true love for His flock, a love beside which the pathetic 'tolerance' and 'mercy' of meagre Christians pales to a sickly ghost.
But, wait! What sound rumbles from the bowels of the earth?
It is the heavy footsteps of Hegemaniac himself. He lifts himself from these deep tunnels, even as Satan lifted himself into the Garden of Eden from the low pits of Hell.
And he is not alone. No, for he carries over his shoulders the placid body of Queen Cleopatra herself! Alas, the foulness of lechery, gateway to all other sins! I shudder to think what horrors these two must have enacted during their dalliance, for Cleopatra's lecherous ways are well-known, and Hegemaniac is a far less honourable man than Antony. And now he carries her with him, so that she may pleasure him again when she wakes. I must interrupt them, before their shameful debauchery shall relume!
"Ye are a blight in the eyes of the Lord! Seek not to pass, for His sun shall not light your sinful footsteps!" I screamed, as I rushed in.
Admittedly, I might have been slightly hasty in screaming like this, for Hegemaniac heard me and lowered Cleopatra to the ground before drawing out his spear.
I might have been better served by 'getting the drop on him,' as they say.
Instead, he began attacking first. His spear extended unnaturally, with its ending protruding out like a tentacle and reaching towards me. However, I am a holy warrior of the Lord, and if Hegemaniac thinks that I will go down so easily then he is mistaken.
I summoned a Shield of Holy Light, which Hegemaniac's spear deflected off harmlessly. Witness ye, the frailty of earthly power!
I lunged forwards, summoning the Spear of Longinus, and aimed for his heart. However, his spear easily parried mine away, and he began to step forwards imperiously while thrusting his own spear. I just about managed to jump out of the way onto the ground, picking up a few dirt-filled bruises along the way. He probably would have killed me already, but in the darkness of this cave it was difficult to aim.
While I tried to get up, he attacked again, and our spears clashed right in front of me. Fortunately, he was surprised by the power of the Spear of Longinus, which blocked his spear so strongly that he was forced to take a step back as it deflected back.
Sadly, this spear shall not last long. I will have only thirty seconds more, before it returns to the Lord's side.
Further, Hegemaniac seems to have outmatched me so far. I am a righteous man of God, and am not as suited to wanton violence as this wicked beast. If the fight continues, then soon I will be undone, and unable to further work the righteous will of the Lord. That cannot be! If I cannot kill or incapacitate Hegemaniac in the next exchange of blows, then I must seek to escape.
As he charged forwards towards me, my spear immediately flew out to take the initiative. However, this is not exactly what happened. He easily deflected my spear to the side, and when I tried bringing it back it scraped against the tunnel wall and flew off-course again. Meanwhile, he was bearing down with his spear, preparing a final blow.
I just about managed to deflect it with the base of my spear, but after this my grip on the spear was knocked too loose to do anything further.
I had only one option.
As he raised his spear again, I cast Fiat Lux, and a bright flash of light emanated in front of me. This blinded him, and he involuntarily lowered his eyes. His attack was easy to dodge.
As his spear skewed harmlessly to my left, I ran past him and towards Cleopatra's body.
Her body lay peacefully, yet the signs of physical exertion and sweat covered it. It is obvious what these sinners had been doing. O, the wickedness in the hearts of men! And that she could look so peaceful after such lechery, as if unashamed by her presence on this Lord's earth.
I also note how disgusted I was with her use of make-up, defacing the body which the Lord created, with lips a sinful shade of crimson and her eyelids painted a dark navy-blue which was as dark as her soul. Fie upon the vanity of women!
However, she may yet be of use.
POV Switch - 1st (MC)
"Hear ye! I shall use this spear to deface and brutalize Cleopatra, unless ye cease to persecute me. Her much-vaunted beauties shall perish from the earth, and her breasts shall be like burnt flowers that are never again to be plucked! Think upon it, for the Lord should not look kindly on any who may have his messenger!" the strange, hunchbacked hobbit-like man shouted.
This actually puts me in something of a predicament.
My quest was to claim Cleopatra's body and take it back to the Indian at the entrance. This man's spear is hovering over her chest, and if he goes through with defacing her then I will fail the quest.
I had to journey all the way here, through the cold, and fight Cleopatra in order to complete it. Why should I surrender the rewards just because some random NPC attacked me in the tunnels? It's not like the rewards from killing this guy, who's wearing moth-eaten robes, will be nearly as high as the quest rewards. Besides, he's weak, and if he lives in these tunnels - because I don't know why else he would be here - then I probably won't run into him again. It would be beneficial to me if he just left me alone now, and let me claim the quest rewards.
"Alright. I'll give you one minute to run away, now raise up your spear and step away."
He shivered, but complied, reluctantly stepping away from Cleopatra's corpse and beginning to run deeper into the tunnels. It's probably freezing in there, but he deserves it for being such a nuisance. I wasn't able to tell his facial expression, because I could barely make out what he looked like in this dark place, but I'd guess he's not looking forwards to the journey.
Once again, ill chance has failed to thwart me.
I picked up Cleopatra again, scraping off some dust, and lifted her over to the entrance. There, the Indian NPC was waiting, along with two of his friends who greeted me chattily with some bizarre language I couldn't understand.
"Hello, good man, thank you for bringing Cleopatra!" the Indian NPC said. "You shall receive great reward for your quest. In fact, my friend here has an assortment of valuable goods, and he shall give you some. Nithin, do the needful."
He turned to his friend, presumably named Nithin, who walked over and picked up a few boxes which he had stored on the back of a camel sitting nearby.
Nithin walked over, and handed over a small platter of blue and green gemstones, probably mined from these caves. "Shukriya," he said, as I took this.
"Excuse me, sir, Nithin does not speak the English," the Indian NPC added. "He means, thank you, and he has also given you a few valuable local gems, can sell them for a lot of money. But do not sell the Star Sapphire! It is very magic. He also has some other thing for you."
I tried to interrogate him further about what precisely the Star Sapphire could do, but he just kept repeating that it was 'very excellent.' Well, hopefully it's worth it.
Along with the jewels, Nithin also handed over a Stone of Summoning, and a Tiger Tooth Powder which could apparently be used to heal serious wounds. The Stone of Summoning, so far as I can tell, allows you to summon Sughreev, a 'monkey king,' to assist you in one fight per day. I would mock the Indians for having a monkey king, but of course even the great nation of China has the Daoist monkey king Sun Wukong, from who of all xianxia webnovel protagonists were born.
Well, if Kirito attacks me soon, he will have to deal with the king of the monkeys. Since Kirito is just a peasant monkey, I am sure he would end up grovelling and begging to be spared.
He will not be spared. I shall kill him, even if the monkey king holds back out of a sense of kinship.
The quest rewards included a large amount of EXP, enough for me to reach level 29.
That was probably the most valuable part, although cashing in the jewels might also be lucrative and help me get better weapons and equipment.
I left the Indian NPC, who was by now busy ogling Cleopatra's corpse. Now that I have a weapon, I can be more daring in fighting groups of players near town. Of course, I should still avoid getting mobbed by large Knights of the Blood groups, but especially with this 'tower' I'm sure they're busy and can't spend all their time monitoring me.
Actually, wait. Now that I mention it, come this morning the KoB will be sending their biggest players to the tower, to fight the boss there. That means that I could walk around near town, killing all of their smaller players with impunity. I just have to lay low until then, so that they don't take too many precautions in advance.
The sun is rising.
As Chairman Mao would have said, may excitement and prosperousness rise with it, like a thousand sunflowers!
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