Chapter
3 – Clawing for Victory
Has my father always been this way?
Did he change recently? His gold and black armor has a shine to it and his long
grey hair and beard seem to glow with a golden glow as if his original hair color
is trying to replace his greys. Also, his wings appear to be more like angel
wings capable of actual fight. In contrast, my grey wings are incapable of
flight and are used as sharp blades to cut those who try to come up behind me.
The God of the Catholics has changed him in some way in front of my eyes, and I’ve
somehow, never noticed it until now.
I’ve been biding my time to show that
we don’t need the help of any God to beat Priscilla, but for now, I’ve been
allowing him to gather allies for us and agreeing with him at almost every turn.
This next course of action, however, I cannot agree with. I was fine with
making allies with non-Catholics and other religious people whose gods and goddesses
we dominated. Working with the Catholics is another issue as it is taking one
step closer to serving their God. I should be hanging these people from hooks
and hanging their young from their parent’s intestines. They should be groveling
at my feet while missing their own and crucified like their God.
It's no wonder why my father made
this tenuous alliance behind my back and isn’t allowing me to talk to their leaders
or be near their people. He’s even taken the monstrance from me and given it
back to the Catholics as a show of good faith. Even though the monstrance is
far away from me, I can swear that I still hear the God within it mocking me. While
thinking over what to do next, I’m unsurprised when everything around me disappears
and changes into the golden scape indicative of Priscilla’s dream. We’ve heard
reports of people willingly joining Priscilla, especially Catholics, so I expected
something like this to happen. Evander was one of the most faithful and
virtuous people and many people wanted to stay in the dream according to Priscilla,
so Catholics wanting to subjugate the world into a dream that forces people to
live in peace is something that the hypocrites would obviously want.
To be honest, this turn of events
is good for me as it shows my father that the Catholics are not to be trusted.
What’s better is the fact that Priscilla is sending various Christs, gods, and
goddesses at me to fight. I have to give her extra love for this when I see her
next. While fighting the gods, I think about the fights I previously had with
them. Why did these die and were conquered so easily compared to the God of the
Catholics? What makes their Christ different than the others?
The Christs of other denominations
were like the gods and goddesses of other religions, but the Christ of the
Catholics isn’t like them despite appearing to be like them in every way. What
makes him different than the others? What makes the Catholics different than
the other Christians and religions? What truth am I missing in this mystery?
Who are you really?
“I am the way, the truth, and the
life,” the God of the Catholics says in my head. “Through me, you will become
your truest self. You seek a crown and I will give you the greatest crown there
is, the thorned crown of love, that I wear as well. Take my hand and I will
show you who I truly am and help you become who you truly are.”
Uncontrollably, I reach out to a
bright light that has dispelled the other Christs, gods, and goddesses. I walk
out of myself like a butterfly coming out of a cocoon. I grab something in the
light, and by the time I wake up, I realize that I’m holding the monstrance
high in the air with my father and the leaders of the Catholic settlement
around me all of which who have stopped fighting one another.
“You’ve seen the light, my son,” my
father says before hugging me.
Lightly pushing my father aside, I
look down at the monstrance as I start to feel disgusted for having been used
by the God of the Catholics. I can’t describe it, but something within me resonated
with the God’s voice. He’s done something to me and staked his claim in part of
my soul and I have to get rid of it somehow!
“I haven’t seen anything!” I say. “You
shouldn’t trust these Catholics. Many of them fight against their own God’s
wishes and have deceived us into walking into this trap.”
“Not all of them have done this.
Seek out the ones with golden glowing eyes and kill those ones. I suspect that
the fighting has only just begun.”
Sure enough, what my father says is
true as everyone in the settlement has turned on one another with more people
with golden glowing eyes entering the settlement. Heading into the fight, I let
out my anger by splitting heads, cutting off limbs, and slicing off heads with
my axe. Even though I was told to only kill those with golden glowing eyes, I swing
my axe wildly and wider to catch a few of the other Catholics in them and
pretend it was an accident or unavoidable because of the chaos of the battle.
No God will make me look like a fool! I am a Nephilim! I am Leif, chief of the
largest and most influential beastman kingdom of the Americas, and soon, of the
world once Priscilla has been dealt with.
Once the battle is done, I go back
to my father and the leaders of the settlement who have decided that they’re fine
with working with us on the condition we work independently since they don’t
exactly trust us because of us “accidentally” killing their own in the battle.
My father gives me a dirty look and I shrug. Seeing as how this is his only
option, my father accepts it and shakes hands with the leaders. We then take
our leave, make camp on our way to our next destination, and rest for the night
as the sun sets. While cleaning my weapons and armor, my father sits by me and
looks into my eyes.
“Is something the matter, father?”
I ask.
“I want to speak to you about our
upcoming battle with Priscilla. We may have gathered many forces to face her,
but her spell will make our numbers and strength meaningless,” he says.
“When has the spell of a woman ever
stopped us from victory? We’ve beaten gods before, so I don’t see why this will
be any different.”
“This is different because this
spell affects us more mentally than physically and we need the help of a God to
overcome it. Now, I see why the God of the Catholics has taken a liking to you,
and today our path to victory was made manifest when I saw you hold up the
monstrance and break Priscilla’s hold over our minds.”
“What are you saying? That I should
allow the God of the Catholics to obtain victory for us?”
“It’s the only way.”
“I admit that his power has been
useful, but I will not allow him to steal the glory that is due to me by
defeating Priscilla. He may aid us, however, I will make the final blow and
have the credit and glory for the victory.”
“You better hope that God allows
it. He does not act according to anyone’s will or by simple human logic and
reason. He’s something beyond that we’ve never experienced before.”
“I’ll be sure to be careful and
make you proud, father. Our victory is inevitable as it always is.”
“You always make me proud, son. I’ll
never be ashamed of you nor will I ever deny being your father.”
My father hugs me and then walks
off. I heard your voice again in his, God of the Catholics. If you think you’ve
won a place in me, then you’re wrong. Things will go back to normal tomorrow after
my victory and our time of relying on you will be over. Mark my words.
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