章節 12: The Demonstration Will Succeed!

"Ugghh- why is this taking so long... I hope Alma visits soon. It was so nice having people to talk to now here I am taking several days to create a separate dimension. *sigh* Why can't someone come to visit the bookstore? Only when Alma came does another come almost immediately... Is she my lucky charm?"

While sighing to himself, Alex stood practically still as he kept making the new dimensional space. He had already made sure he could hear the bell no matter where he was, so this situation was just unlucky. After all he installed a lock just in case, but now he was only thinking about how much of a waste of time it was to add it.

*sigh* "I wonder what Alma's doing?" After thinking for a moment Alex activated a technique that specifically allowed him to see specifically Alma and ignore the rest of the world. This technique only had the downside of needing to specify a certain object or person and couldn't see more than what can normally be seen by the human eye. Of course, there were other techniques that could supplement it allowing him to see more, but he only cared about what the cute child was doing.

***

"Today is the planned demonstration day, and we expect rain!"

"Yes! I can't wait! I hope it is a thunderstorm so that the growing process can speed up!"

Alma was having an animated conversation with Mathew as they were helping prepare for the demonstration. Alongside them were the other members of the church who had joined but not done much for it. There was the blacksmith Henry who saw the original fight and was impressed he just originally joined mostly on a whim. It was only after he saw the spear Alex had gifted her did he truly start to believe in the God he had decided to follow.

The last three were orphans just like Alma was. She knew them by passing and invited them to join which they only agreed because they believed in Olsen's kindness.

No one else had been recruited recently mostly because everyone was worrying about the supposed attack that would come soon. Olsen also knew that unless they could deal with the threat no one would want to join. So rather than bolstering their ranks, he decided to believe in the power bestowed upon Alma and the training she had done for him. It was especially the training that solidified his faith in winning the battle as he found he became extremely nimble in avoiding attacks and diminishing powerful attacks.

That said this group of six had been working for the past 3 days making sure everything would be perfect for the demonstration. The orphans were also very happy to work after hearing that they would be able to have full bellies so long as things were done well. So despite everyone's tired faces, they were all excited as the final preparations were being made.

Today was the day of faith letting several people who would too busy take a break now able to watch as the church members shuffled with the dirt and stones on the ground as they made preparations. All these strange movements made stranger by the child not even 10 ordering everyone around to make small adjustments. All this made this new 'cult' that popped up even stranger than they had heard before.

Just as everything was being made to be perfect Olsen came in running, "Lady Alma! I bring news! The enemy is here!"

Alma who was smiling happily at how everything was going suddenly became serious as she frowned, "How many, and when can we expect the attack?"

Olsen spoke with an extremely solemn face, "Lady... There are nearly a hundred men..."

Just as he let Alma consider the situation Renee also came running from the direction Olsen had just come. "Lady Alma! Oh! Olsen! Have you already informed the Lady?"

"I was just about to get into the details..."

Renee also had a solemn expression as she spoke in a calm voice, "I can see two groups of ten are from the church. The rest of the men are from the Baron's household. We can expect around 70 men from him at the most. The Baron won't be able to utilize more force than that without the threat of destabilizing his rule. Of course, this shouldn't be taken at face value as he is smarter than his son and could very well make a huge difference in the battle."

Alma frowned as she spoke, "When do you think they will attack?"

"Since they know our church is small they will likely underestimate it and attack today at noon for the latest. We can expect that they will give their soldiers at least 2 hours of rest, and if we are lucky and the Baron is cautious we can expect 4 hours; noon."

Alma still frowning spoke, "What about the rain?"

Renee shook her head sadly, "Unfortunately the information they received should make them extremely confident of their victory and most likely believe the rain will do nothing to them considering how many people they have. So even if it starts raining they will not retreat."

Alma's frown deepened as she spoke softly, "Hopefully the rain can come sooner so we can get this tree growing before the battle." As soon as she finished speaking her frown disappeared as she knelt down and began to pray for the rain and thunder to come sooner.

Seeing her do this several others of the church also knelt down and began praying to Alex hoping he would hear their prayers. Hoping for the battle to wait for the rain to come or for their god to make it rain sooner to allow for their victory.

***

Alex who was checking Alma's vision saw that they were setting something up and quickly realized that they had made a perfect area for an apple tree. He had forgotten to use a technique that would allow for sound making everything silent, but it didn't really matter as he just wanted to check up on her so that he could cure his boredom by creating the dimensional space.

Seeing the longing look in her eyes at the spot that was clearly meant for the tree and then seeing her kneel down to pray made it 'perfectly' clear to Alex. "She really wants to eat apples again. Haha! This silly girl even went so far to pray and convince others to pray so that the rain would come sooner. Haha!"

Alex paused for a moment before pausing his dimensional space creation and opened a wormhole to Alma's world to allow his power through. "Although I am not a god I shall answer your prayers." As he spoke he casually activated his creation magic along with using the water in that world to gradually form a rainstorm and then a thunderstorm.

He even realized that the place where Alma was at, was already expecting a small drizzle making the process even faster. After he stopped pouring his power through and creating the perfect thunderstorm to make the growth of the tree even faster.

What he didn't realize was that this world had very little supernatural energy and most power was based on the power of belief. The power of belief was a grand power that could only affect certain things in specific ways, but the power that Alex had pushed into the world, haphazardly, affected everything. It was especially beneficial to all living things.

Alex had unknowingly introduced this power into the world in great amounts making the world stronger as a whole and since he had focused on making a thunderstorm this entire thunderstorm was infused with the power he had used. Still, it was not his fault entirely as Alex based his power output to what he had to deal with in the library. The library had an extremely dense power around it making it so he had to put in a lot of effort to make supernatural things occur. This was also why he was taking so long to create the dimensional space as he was struggling against the great power of the library.

As the cloud formed and quickly became a thunderstorm Alex stopped, "That should be good. Just a few touches to help the tree grow even better... There. It was strangely easy... oh well."

Shrugging Alex continued creating the dimensional space that would house his garden and whatever else he would shove here. Having no idea how powerful he truly was compared to the people of that world. To those people, he might as well truly be a god. Now that a God had acted, everything within that world would be affected. Still, here he was oblivious as he created his garden.

***

Just as Alma was praying she could also hear the murmurs of those around her. The people were regular people and simply regarded these 'cultists' as a group that would disappear when the church came to deal with them. Seeing them pray after messing with the ground in a weird way was merely a spectacle to them. They wanted to see what the strange ritual would accomplish.

"What are they expecting?"

"I don't know. I am just really confused more than anything. Do they expect praying to a fake god will help them in some way?"

"I heard that they are just waiting for the rain."

"I was closer when that guy Olsen was speaking and heard the church and the Baron had arrived!"

"What! Are they both here to attack?"

"We should leave now."

"Yeah, who wants to be in the middle and confused for a cultist anyway."

Just as everyone was learning of the incoming attack everyone was quickly getting ready to leave the area. It was at this moment someone yelled out, "Look in the sky! What is happening?!"

"Fog?"

Alma who was quietly listening while praying heard fog and immediately stood up and looked to the sky. Soon the large fog that seemed to come out of nowhere was starting to fill the sky, "YES! Lord Alex has answered our calls!"

Hearing Alma yell everyone who had been praying looked up to see the fog that was rapidly covering the sky. "Lord Alex has answered! It is his fog!" Everyone here had heard Alma claim Alex lived in a library within the fog, so seeing the fog that covered the sky they immediately knew it had to be him, their God!

As everyone reveled they saw the fog slowly condense into clouds that slowly turned black turning them into a real thunderstorm. Alma quickly woke up and called out, "Is everyone here?"

Just as she spoke Vicky and her child came running. "We are here! We have brought the ear coverings you asked for!"

Seeing Vicky arrive Alma became even more excited as she heard the the sound of water in the air. "Everyone get the coverings! We don't want our hearing to be completely destroyed!"

As everyone scrambled to get ready the first drops fell to the ground. Alma who watched the rain fall noticed a strangeness. "Glowing? Is this a gift from Alex?" The more she stared and saw several drops with varying levels of glow she became even more sure that this was a true gift of her God, her savior, Alex.

Looking at the sky once more as a few drops fell on her face Alma smiled. "Thank you Lord Alex for this gift. I will make the most of it."

After saying a few more words and getting everyone ready she started a strange dance as the rain started falling more heavily. Soon the sound of thunder could be heard going through the cloud itself. As she danced the world that was being drowned by the rain suddenly seemed to chime and resonate with Alma's movements.

Suddenly the sound of rain stopped with the sound of Alma's footsteps as she danced around the apple seed seemed to drown out everything else... *tap* *tap* *tap*... Suddenly the world started again as the first lightning hit the ground with a loud *BANG*

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