The land around me is a mess as if
an earthquake happened here. I’m surprised that the land heals itself after
every end if it looks like this every time. I’m even more surprised of the attack
on La Santa Verde. If God allowed that church to be attacked in such a manner,
then the rest of the churches must be fairing worse. The faithful that are left
must be suffering to the worst possible extent right now.
‘Bene-’
Why am I feeling so lightheaded
now? Tunc?
“You caused this suffering to be
upon them, Benedetto,” a familiar voice says.
I’m not going to let you slow me
down.
“Those people are suffering because
they chose to side with God. You made them make that choice.”
They made the right choice. I’m hoping
they can endure the challenge God put in front of them.
“Human beings are so weak to their vices.
Put just a little pressure on them, and they fall.”
The people I know are stronger than
that.
“But are you? You’ve done your best
to acquire all the power you could since day one of becoming a hero.”
It was so I could save humanity.
“You broke the heart of your closest
friends just so you could gain power as quickly as possible. You married that
gorilla of a woman and forced yourself to love her and covered it up by saying,
‘God wanted me to do it’.”
I do love Donna. I wouldn’t be
risking my life for her right now if I didn’t.
“I guess you’re right. You did stop
caring for your family when she became the center of attention. You stopped
caring so much about them that they were slaughtered despite the power you have
in the land, and even though you have time traveling powers, you refused to go
back to save them.”
Just because I didn’t pay as much attention
to them as I used to, it doesn’t mean that I didn’t love them. I gave them the
best security and the best living conditions that I could while I was out at
work. I tried to make my parents proud, and they’ve told me that they are.
“You said you’ve given the best
security, and yet, that’s failed you time and time again. The churches are
destroyed. What do you think that means for the hiding spot that your children
are in? Has the thought of how your children are doing ever occurred to you yet?
Some father you are.”
There are demons and sin-filled
humans searching the area. Donna must be close by.
I’m sure they’re safe with the
people I charged with their protection. I knew you would go after me first, so I
distanced them from me.
“Are you sure that I didn’t go
after them first?”
I have to sneak around the enemy. I’m
still not in any condition to fight especially with this annoying voice in my
head.
I’m sure. It’s because I’ve been making
you mad and drawing all of the attention to me by having people constantly pray
against you, save souls, and destroy your monuments of sin.
“You don’t know how vast my army is.
My forces are approaching where Donna is. We’ll have her shortly then we’ll torture
her and use her like the bitch she-”
I’m not listening to him anymore.
His voice trails off in my head. The demons and sin-filled humans here appear
to be extra agitated and are holding their heads. This is my chance to quickly
sneak past them.
‘You’re really making him mad.’
I hope so.
‘I wouldn’t be too confident about
saying that. The only thing keeping him from zeroing in on your location is the
name of God that is partially exposed on your shoulders.’
Oh, I almost forgot about that. If
I keep it like this, I’ll stay weak, but if I don’t, the demons may find me.
“Do you remember what we did to the
first hero, Almeda? There wasn’t a sin we didn’t commit against her, there wasn’t
a death she didn’t suffer, and there wasn’t torture she didn’t endure. We’ll
be doing the same to each and everyone you know and hold dear.”
‘He has the nerve to mention her…’
Calm down, Tunc. Don’t let him get
to you. Even though you put Almeda through the worst things a person could go through,
she still persevered, brought humanity into a brighter future while keeping
them faithful to God, and became the example for all heroes to follow. Even
Tunc, who was once disgraced because of his actions, became a better person and
is the reason why so many heroes succeed in their task.
‘Benedetto…’
“Don’t talk about that failed hero
so positively just because he’s your friend. I’ll make sure to put him through
Hell with every hero he helps, and you’re next.”
These demons are getting more aggravated
around me. Some of them can barely take the pain in their heads and collapse
while others are killing each other and breaking anything they find. I shouldn’t
aggravate the devil anymore because I don’t know what might happen if I keep
going.
“You have no churches, no more safe
havens to rest in. We rule the world now. We took it over in less than a week
despite your best efforts. We converted some of your most faithful servants.
God has abandoned you. There is no hope left.”
Don’t say anything. Don’t think
anything. Hold onto faith and hope. I can make it through this. I’ve found the
bodies of my soldiers who were with Donna. They’re near a pile of corpses of
demons and Hellspawn, so they died honorably. Donna can’t be far now. Besides
the bodies, I find giant footprints and swashed sinners that must be from that
wingless dragon. That thing looks like it turned out to be worth the trouble.
“We’re approaching the place where
your children are hiding. Your defenses won’t last any longer against our numbers.”
I didn’t notice it until now, but I’m
in a city or town of some kind. I can’t tell which culture it belonged to
because of the rumble everywhere. All of that time and effort to make different
buildings to differentiate ourselves from one another seems to have been for
nothing when this is the end result. Bringing them all under the Sparrows
helped to create a sense of unity while also allowing the cultures and people room
to stand out from one another. The people loved me or at least most of them
did.
“You led them to their deaths just
as you are leading your wife to her death.”
‘Stay on guard. Be ready for a trap
to go off any second now.’
I’ve been on guard ever since the
devil entered my head.
I think I found where Donna is.
There’s a massive hole in a big building that might’ve been a cathedral or a kind
of city hall. The footprints go into the building and I don’t see any massive
holes that go out of the building. It’s dark in here, and I can’t see-what? It’s
Donna! She pulled me from the darkness and kissed me. I’m so glad to find-
“Ow!”
She slapped me!
‘Haha, that never gets old.’
“Why did you come by yourself?”
“I didn’t have a choice. Besides, La
Santa Verde was heavily sieged, and I was sent away for my safety against my
will. There are others who escaped but I don’t know what happened after the battle.”
“And you somehow made your way back
here on horseback?”
“Listen, the devil is charged with
tempting me right now, and he thought it was a good idea to put me on your
trail with his army in your way. He’s probably springing his trap as we speak,
so we should get moving.”
“Luciferum himself is tempting you?
Is there anything I can do to help you?”
“Yeah. You can stay away from my
husband,” a familiar voice says from behind me before the wingless dragon eats Donna.
I turn around to see another Donna.
“Donna? Wait, are you really-Ow!
What-”
She slaps then kisses me. I guess
it’s really her.
‘I couldn’t even tell that was a fake.
I know about demons who hide using the appearance of familiar people, but I’ve
rarely seen them.’
“That was for coming back.”
“So…do you think I did the right
thing?”
“You did, but I just wished you had
more support with you especially in your condition. Your bandages are loose.
Here, let me-”
“No, it’s the only thing that’s preventing
Luciferum from finding exactly where we are.”
“Then that tremendously helps us.”
“Luciferum said that he’s
approaching the place where our children are. We should go there first.”
“You’re right. Let’s go.”
Donna helps me get on top of the
dragon as we travel to where our children are. The soldiers of Hell have found
us and are chasing after us. Donna’s dragon is able to smash through the blockades
in front of us and the name of God partially exposed on my shoulders keeps them
from getting too close, but their long ranged attacks are a cause for concern
because of how many they send our way. We’re able to dodge their attacks
because of all the rumble and broken trees though I’m not sure how much longer
we can last out here.
Before I know it, the attacks from
behind stop. When I look behind me, I see that the enemy has been taken out and
there are people swinging from the trees. The tree swingers then take out the other
enemies in front of us before swinging next to us. They appear to be Cuchillos
with modified arms.
“Benedetto! We’re glad that your
wife and you dropped in,” one of them says.
“Thank you for your help. We really
needed it. Who are you?”
“You may not know us, but we’re newer
Sparrows. We’ve combined the best parts of our cultures to make a special team,
which has served us well. You’ve inspired us to put our differences aside to
fight for the greater good.”
“I’m glad that I’ve done so. Can I ask
for more of your help? My children are in trouble.”
“There’s no need to ask. We’re all
in this together after all and we need to help each other out.”
“Are you sure you can handle it
with just your small group?”
“Small? Our small group is more
than it seems. Come on men!”
More people leap out from the
trees, some of which are on mechanical horses. There are horse-drawn carriages
with mounted arrow launchers and some kind of large gun. As we travel further,
the demon army attacks us again, but our new friends with their weapons and
mechanics take them out without any trouble, however, the hordes get larger the
closer we get, which results in a few casualties. It takes us a little while of
fighting off and on, but when we finally get to where my children are at, we
find that the traps we set up for the forces of Hell have been tripped and the
shield around the church is still up. We enter the shield as the demonic army
behind us hits it and triggers an explosive trap behind us to eliminate them.
“Stay here and hold them off if
that shield falls!” I say to the group.
“Yes sir!” they say.
Donna and I enter into the church with
the wingless dragon told to wait outside with the group. The mages inside are taking
turns in groups to keep the traps and shield up while the soldiers are gearing
up to fight. The Sparrows inside are excited to see me and greet Donna and me
and we greet them back as I look for my children. I find them in the back of the church
and run to them to embrace them all with Donna.
One of my Sparrows asks, “How did
you get that wingless dragon through the shield?”
Oh, that’s right. I’m surprised
that thing didn’t die when I exposed the name of God.
“I don’t know,” I honestly say to
the Sparrow, “Donna has control of it. Maybe that has something to do with it?”
“The purity of a beast controller’s
soul determines whether or not the beast will be weak to the holy powers of God,”
a mage says.
‘Donna is pure?’
I was thinking the same thing. I
mean I know she’s a good person, but is she pure as completely pure? It would
be nice if it’s true and I guess it is.
A Sparrow from outside charges in
and says, “The shield is almost broken!”
“We’re almost completely out of
strength. We can save the rest to activate the traps or buy more time for the
shield. What are your orders, sir,” a mage says.
Before I say anything to my
Sparrows, I tell my children I love them and to hide in the back.
“Activate those traps but try to
slowly bring down the shield. We can take them head-on with the forces we have,”
I say as I fix the bandages on my arm to bring myself up to full strength.
I go back outside with my swords
drawn as Donna mounts her dragon and my soldiers form a line near the shield.
The traps go off and take out most of the demons, but there are still many more
to fight.
“Ready yourselves, men!” I say as
the shield slowly begins to drop.
My Sparrows let out a battle yell
before a volley of fireballs and arrows destroy the demonic army in front of
us. Lilia, Bonito, and a small band of Sparrows come out from the smoke.
“Did you miss us?” Bonito says with
Lilia waving at us with a smile.
“I’m glad to see you’re all okay,”
I say with a smile as they and their group come into the church to rest.
