บท 13: This is a True Demonstration
*BANG*
*BANG*
*BANG*
*BANG*
The world seem to shake as the lighting hit the ground, but instead of causing huge damage, the electricity seemed to spread out through the ground. The church members all felt slight shocks, but it was barely anything as it spread and gathered throughout the area. Even Alma who was where the lightning was condensing didn't seem very affected as she continued to dance a strange dance that resonated with the world.
It was also at this moment that the apple seed that had been planted began to grow as the energy of the lightning didn't hurt it at all, instead, it helped it grow quickly. The small sprout quickly grew larger as the energy was either dissipated or absorbed. The sapling grew within a few minutes and soon reached half of Alma's height.
This entire process was based on a cultivation technique that was usually used to strengthen and give energy to cultivators. What Alma didn't know was that this growing technique would truly be only a supernatural growing technique without the help of the energy that Alex used.
The original technique would only strengthen the tree slightly, but only to the extent natural forces would strengthen a regular tree. All this would have been fine before, but now that the energy was infused with his power, it became a strengthening technique for everything in the area including her church members and especially for herself and especially the tree.
*BANG*
*BANG*
*BANG*
*BANG*
As the lightning once again hit, the tree that had started to grow slowly began to grow rapidly as the trunk became thicker and the tree started to grow larger towering over Alma. Still, everything was normal as the tree started to grow flowers signifying the next stage as Alma's movements changed making the thunder and rain slow but in return, the wind picked up as the pollen of the flowers were guided off and into the air.
Soon the tree was covered with a magical golden glow as the tree pollinated itself. It was only after a minute of this golden glow did Alma change her movement again making the rain and thunder begin all over again.
*BANG*
*BANG*
*BANG*
*BANG*
This time the tree seemed to come to life as the flowers wilted and gave way to beautiful large red apples. It was at this moment that something Alma didn't expect to happen happened as a lightning bolt hit the tree!
*BANG*
The tree was strangely fine, instead, the apples that had just become ripe fell from the tree as they all rolled away from the center of the tree. The tree had not grown many flowers in the first place, so only eight apples fell and rolled away. Originally she was supposed to pick the apples before continuing, but with this strange happening Alma considered it the work of Alex and the apples the price Alex put on the rain.
Still, this dance that was supposed to be exhausting seemed strangely easy to her making her truly believe the previous conjuncture was correct. So after continuing the dance, lightning hit again, once again growing the main tree and making it grow flowers, this time nearly three times as many!
But just as she was preparing to continue to the next part to grow apples she noticed the apples that had fallen had one seed that had sprouted and grown into the ground making some small saplings! This time she correctly guessed that this was the goal of her god when he made a bolt of lightning hit the tree.
Alex who had checked in on her noticed she had only planted one tree despite the technique allowing for over a dozen trees to grow all at once, so he gave a few gifts to Alma just after creating the thunderstorm.
One of them was the new apple trees and the other was using a technique that would make the apples become extra nutritious and delicious. Except, something both he and Alma didn't realize, was that now that the thunderstorm contained the special power he used, the bolt of lightning that was specifically made just to make the tree release the fruits and have the best seed grow, now did something different.
As Alma called down thunder like a god of thunder, the tree that was struck by lightning suddenly gained a small amount of sentience becoming a 'spiritual' tree or a tree with a mind. The lightning that should have only strengthened the tree's body started to slowly strengthen the tree's 'mind'. Since the technique was not built for the strengthening of the tree's mind, it was very slow and only the small amount of power in the raindrops helped nurture the new intelligence.
**
On a large hillside, a man was standing looking at a small town that was supposed to be his territory. He had earned his title and this land through a military campaign in which he lead a successful attack with only a small group of soldiers. He was given the choice between a higher military rank or the title of Baron. As his first child was about to be born soon he decided to retire early and keep a small noble title for the safety of his family.
Fitzpatrick then brought prosperity to these places in less than ten years! He could truly be considered to be a good noble as he helped all those in his territory. His first son was born and took control of a village when he became old enough. With the help of his father, he became a decent ruler.
In the last 20 years, he had 5 children with the second son only recently sent to this village to see how good a leader he could be. His last children being two daughters and the youngest son having recently turned 7.
Originally everything was going well and he was planning on visiting his second son to see how he was doing and how to fix his son's arrogance to mold him into a good leader. It was then he found the guards he had sent with his son had either died or returned without anything to their name. They only brought a simple declaration, "Your son had died at the hands of a child and a guard named Olsen."
He knew of Olsen as he was a good man who only lost everything after protecting a child from a noble. It had left a deep impression on him as a younger man. He had even offered the man a job under him and a chance to gain back some of his status, but the man denied to work under any noble after what happened the first time. Eventually, he gave up and allowed Olsen to guard the small village that he was growing under him. He originally thought Olsen would follow him after seeing the change he could do to a simple village, but Olsen never budged.
Now hearing Olsen being the murderer of his child he was furious! Still, he was a calm man by nature and quickly realized there was more to this story and after inquiring from the guards he learned they never even fought Olsen! The only one who died at Olsen's hand was his son! Yet now he was hearing that the greatest danger wasn't Olsen but a child with a strange talent!
Everything seemed impossible and it was only after he heard that child claimed to be a believer of an unknown god that called himself Alex did things make a bit more sense. For him Olsen wouldn't just kill his son for no reason, but with this new god, it was possible Olsen had made himself a believer. From his own experience, a man of faith could be crazy the more they believed in their own god. Olsen most likely either lost his mind or became one of these crazed believers.
Of course, this was only one of the ideas in his mind as he unlike many in the village knew Olsen would never act without care as he would need some type of absolute proof to make such a crazy move. He believed that this new 'god' was most likely some type of supernatural person who was confused as a god by the ignorant child, but Olsen saw this entity's power and decided he would follow it in the hopes of attaining greater power.
Based on his conjectures he believed the best course of action was to kill Olsen as punishment while convincing either the child or the entity behind her to help him. He only brought a decent-sized army as he believed a show of power was necessary. It was only when he was less than a day away from the village he met a priest of the church and part of the inquisitor's army!
Although it was only twenty men, he had heard great things about how the men in the inquisitor's army fought. After meeting and making sure there were no misunderstandings they met in a tent that then allowed Fitzpatrick to understand what had happened. As it turned out the group that was following some unknown god had decided to make a church!
After talking it through with the priest he decided to test this new 'god's believers' who happened to include Olsen. To him, Olsen would definitely be on the front lines and would die soon after the battle began making it extremely easy for him to take revenge. Although that was on his mind outwardly he only proposed to the priest that they capture the child who led the church and find the source of this supposed new 'god' to avoid future problems.
The priest was especially happy to capture this heretic and find the source of this hypocrisy! He easily agreed to be the leader and destroy the church on their own as Fitzpatrick mentioned his army was mostly as a 'show of force' for all those who wished to be enemies with him. The priest believed that this all made sense after all a group that barely numbered 10 despite including children would not be worth anything.
That had all happened the day before and now that he was standing on a hill looking down onto the village he painstakingly grew, he felt a sense of strangeness. He had fought in many battles and trusted his strength, but now something deep inside his bones yelled at him that he would die should he fight.
As his men rested and prepared for what might become a battle, the sky suddenly changed. The original partly cloudy sky changed as the sun disappeared into fog. Right before his eyes, the scene changed as the fog turned into large clouds that slowly darkened. Eventually, the dark clouds cracked with the sound of thunder as the first rain fell.
"Is it truly the work of a god?" Murmuring to himself Fitzpatrick watched as the rain became intense until something strange happened. The lightning struck four times in the same area consecutively! Just as he began to question things the damp air seemed to become fresher as if it had become easier to breathe.
Then lightning struck again in the same pattern of four bolts all in the same area! As he focused his eyes on the area where the bolts fell he saw a golden light! That light only lasted for almost a minute before disappearing.
"What in god's name is happening?!" Soon more lightning and more strange lights. Everything continued as the rain fell the scene kept repeating itself. Hours passed as the lightning hit the same spot as if an angry god really wanted to smite that one spot.
Both he and everyone on that hill stood silently in the rain as they watched the rain and lightning fall. Lighting was viewed as an action of the gods, but here it was more like a common phenomenon. It was only after twelve full hours passed did the sky slowly lighten as the rain became a small drizzle and the lightning no longer fell. The day had already completely passed and the sun was getting ready to set as it slowly started to dye the sky orange.
The man who stood all day watching as the bolts fell to his knees as he gave up all previous assumptions of what he had expected of this trip before now.
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