Chapter
1 – Further Humbling
I’ve been traveling on the oceans
for weeks, and it looks like I’m no closer to my goal. I’m sick of seeing
nothing but the sea around me and tired of eating fish. What makes me even
sicker is looking at my reflection in the water. Seeing my damaged armor and
beige, scarred skin that’s a reminder of my failure to defeat my ex-wife,
Priscilla, is enough to make me want to throw up. My want for revenge is the
only thing pushing me forward and keeping me from killing myself with the
makeshift axe I’ve made out of the large fish I’ve eaten.
Even now, I can hear Priscilla
laughing at my pathetic state in my mind. If she couldn’t use magic that
affected my perception of reality, then she’d be dead or forced to bear my
children to make up for all the ones she killed. This Pope that I’m traveling
to talk to better give me the help I need, but then again, it wouldn’t surprise
me if his God led me out here to torture me and make me starve to death or die
of dehydration.
“Don’t lose hope. You’ll come to do
great things if you keep going,” the God of the Catholics says.
This monstrance I’ve been carrying
around contains the God of the Catholics in the form of a single piece of bread
with a cross on it. The thing itself is indestructible and I can’t manage to
get rid of it as every time I throw it in the sea, it comes back and hits me in
the face. I’ve been able to converse with him and one of the few able to do so
since not everyone can hear the voice of this annoying God.
“I don’t want to hear anything from
you and I told you not to read my thoughts,” I say. “Besides, I’ve heard you
telling me to kill myself in my dreams.”
“You know those were demons
pretending to be me. I am the only God and the true Christ for my one, holy,
Church.”
Great. As if I’d needed to be
bothered by old enemies. I’ve conquered Christian kingdoms who claimed to
follow the true Christ and conquered them all. No Christ or other god or
goddess has managed to stand up to me without eventually falling or giving me
their power, but the Christ of the Catholics is different. What makes this
Jesus different than the others still alludes me, besides the fact that this
one is more annoying than the others and the only one I haven’t been able to
break. I might as well just call this God, the only God because he’s given me
the most trouble and won’t stop calling himself the only God. I guess I can
give him that since I wouldn’t be able to break free from Priscilla’s spell
without his help.
“You’d have less difficulty making
it through this journey if you’d listen to me,” God says.
“I listen here and there. It’s how
I was able to get control of this frigate ship,” I say.
“You’d also find it easier to steer
and use if you didn’t kill everyone on it.”
“I have a bloodlust to satiate. I
also don’t want to hear you comment on what I did to the women of the ship.
That was another need that had to be filled.”
“And yet, you are not satisfied nor
will you ever be if you seek to satiate your hunger for blood and sex.”
“Says you. I was at least satisfied
during the time it happened and the happiness I felt at offending you lasted up
until now.”
“Now, you have no one to help you
steer this ship, you’ve run out of food and water, and your hunger pangs for
your lusts are still clawing at your soul.”
“You’re going to have to deal with
that part of me just as I do and get over the fact that I’m never letting go of
those vices.”
Something rocks the boat and stirs
the ocean around me. Looking over the deck, I see what looks to be a large
whale that’s five times the size of this boat swimming underneath. It descends
further under the sea far away from my sight before rapidly coming back up and
splitting the boat in half.
“You’re to blame for this, aren’t
you?!” I say to God.
Taking my makeshift axe, I wait for
the whale to turn around and get closer. As it turns around, it reveals the
beak of a bird and a large red and black eye within its mouth with tendrils
coming out of it. More tendrils also come out of the whale’s eye and parts of
its body as it approaches me at high speeds. I’ve heard of sea monsters like
this existing, but never thought I would ever see one. This will be a great
meal and make a fine tale to tell the people back home about once I kill it!
Leaping at the monster, my axe barely manages to make a dent in its skin as I
struggle to climb up it while the rest of the ship is destroyed around me by
its charge.
Eventually, I slip and fall into
the ocean before managing to make it to one of the eyes. I get onto one of the
pieces of the ship that barely has enough room for me to lay on it, stand up,
and yell at the monster to come back and face me, however, it only swims away
and then plunges into the depths of the sea. Great, now I’m worse off than I
was previously with the only good thing being that this piece of wood is easier
to steer and move than the ship I was on.
“Do not worry too much. Soon,
you’ll reach civilization on the sea,” God says.
“I don’t want to hear anything you
have to say right now,” I say while rowing with a plank of wood and heading in
the direction God told me to go.
Hours pass until I realize that
I’ve been rowing since the afternoon. It’s nighttime now so I decide to rest as
best I can on this wobbly piece of wood. I don’t expect I’ll fall asleep
because of how frustrated I am and uncomfortable laying on the wood, but I do,
and when I wake up, I see what looks to be large cathedrals and buildings ahead
of me in the morning mist. Rowing towards it, I see that the cathedrals and
buildings are on some sort of large, damaged boat that looks like something
from mankind’s futuristic past. So, this is one of those floating cities of the
Atlantic Ocean I’ve heard so much about? That also must mean that the people I
see on the edge are the fishmen who inhabit it.
Two fishmen watch me float towards
them, one is a female with purple hair and orange eyes while the other is a
bald male who has green eyes and is holding a spiky spear and shield with a
cross design on it. Both of them have blue-colored skin with darker blue areas
on their body that appear rough and scaly and have gills on the face and fins
of a fish on their head. The female seems calm with a smile on her face while
the male seems cautious even though he has a smirk on his face.
“Hello, my name is Lucy!” the
female says. “Who are you and would you like us to help you?”
I can hear God’s voice in the
woman’s as if the two are one and the same.
“He obviously needs help. Look at
him,” the male says who has the same voice of God in his.
“I’m just being courteous by
asking, Gerardus. Oh, you have a monstrance with you! Are you a traveling
priest or penitent paladin?”
“Tch, I’m neither,” I say.
The debris I’m on makes it to the
two, allowing me to crawl onto their floating city and stand up. In my head, I
debate beating the two to death with the debris I was on or using Gerardus’
weapons against him.
“Do not harm these faithful
servants of mine. They will be on your side and will help you,” God says.
“Now I really want to kill them
because you said that,” I say aloud.
Gerardus raises his shield a bit
and then says, “What do you mean and who are you talking to?”
“Haha! It’s sad really that a God’s
faithful can’t hear the voice of the one they worship while someone like me
can.”
“What are you talking about? Speak
common sense.”
“Wait!” a man says in the distance
as he rushes towards us.
This fishman is dressed in the grey
and red robes of a priest and is wearing black metal armor. His eyes are black
and grey, he seems no older than my father and has the voice of God in his just
like these two.
“Stand back, Fr. Titus. This is a
strange man,” Gerardus says.
“I have heard God speak to me of
him in my dreams. He’s Leif, a Nephilim beastman chief from the Americas, and a
dangerously violent man,” Fr. Titus says.
“Then why are you telling us to
stand back?”
“Because I can hear the voice of
God, like him, and guide him towards the correct path.”
“This man can truly hear the voice
of God?”
Approaching me with caution and
bravery, Fr. Titus stands up to me with his back straight and looks me dead in
the eyes.
“He can and God has great plans for
him despite the atrocities he’s committed,” Fr. Titus continues. “Leif, please
allow God to help you. Here, you will gain the strength and perspective on your
life that you need to defeat Priscilla and save the world from her devious
curse.”
“I don’t plan on staying here long.
Your God told me to see your Pope.”
“This is an important step you must
make to reach my faithful servant and gain what you need to
convince him to lend him his aid,” God says.
“See? God agrees with me.”
“As if his approval means that much
to me.”
“It will soon.”
“Stop it. Both of you. Who is
Priscilla and what are you both talking about?” Gerardus asks.
“I’m sorry for the confusion,
Gerardus. I will explain everything along the way. Please, follow me, Leif, and
allow me to show you why God brought you to us,” Fr. Titus says.
“Tch. As if I have a better choice,”
I say as I reluctantly follow the priest and the other two fishmen into their
floating city.
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