Chương 86: Sent by the Big Guy

Outside, I took a moment to recover from what just happened.

"That was a wild ride," I said. Kasia nodded.

"Everything happened so fast. I'm still not sure how we ended up here." Vasil opened the satchel slightly.

"It appears we have stumbled upon a village that may be sympathetic to your cause. The value of those runes that lady gave you, especially Web and Fangs, is more than the gear you are wearing." I scratched my head.

"I thought she was going to kill me. I was sure she was going to kill me, and then she suddenly flipped and I have three more rare runes in my pocket."

"Two rares," Vasil corrected.

"Fist is uncommon."

"Alright, Vasil, two rares. It doesn't matter. Looks like Lady Kleris finally drew my lot, and I have some shiny new runestones to show for it." Kasia frowned.

"Who did what?"

"Kleris," I said.

"The goddess of luck. She casts the lots. If your name comes up, something good happens to you."

"You sure have a lot of gods in Graecia."

"Oh yeah. Tons. But it sounds like you have more than one god here as well."

"What do you mean?" Kasia asked.

"You heard Jagoda. Sounds like there are two Stvoras."

"I believe Jagoda's Stvora and the Church's Stvora are one and the same," Vasil said.

"Sure," I said.

"But it does make the Church's official story less believable. You have people out here like Jagoda, living their lives, worshipping in their own way, not being divinely punished in the slightest. Besides the funky magic that seems to be all up in this town, they seem to be doing fine. And if I'm to believe Jagoda, the Church is the only one who isn't fine with it. You know what? I'm starting to think the Church may not be the good guys!" Vasil sighed.

"Are you trying to be funny again?" I shook the satchel.

"I am being funny. Why do you always have to be so serious? Would it hurt you to laugh sometimes? I just got some free stuff. I'm in a good mood. Don't ruin it."

"I just do not think the Church is a laughing matter. They want you and Kasia dead."

"Hey, don't act so depressed. They probably want you dead too! They'll definitely want you dead once they find out you're with us." I paused.

"You know, it seems pretty stupid to turn your enemy into an immortal, doesn't it."

"It does," Vasil said.

"But it fits their eternal suffering and damnation beliefs."

"It does?" I asked.

"I thought they were more about burning and erasing people."

"Yes, so they can burn and suffer forever."

"They ever set you on fire?"

"They did a lot of things to me," Vasil said quietly. Now I felt like an asshole. Here I was trying to crack jokes about the Church when they had literally taken everything from him. Killed his only daughter. Turned him into an indestructible frog so they could torture him for eternity. He never even mentioned his wife, so I didn't dare ask what happened to her. Possibly something even more messed up somehow. No wonder he didn't think it was funny.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

"I'm sorry Vasil," I said.

"That was inconsiderate of me. I was trying to make you laugh, but I didn't really think it through. I should have known better."

"I know," he said.

"It is alright. It was a long time ago. Do not worry about it." But I did worry about it. Goddess knows what they did to that poor man, and how long he had suffered. Sounded like he actually had it way worse than me, and I got handed a pretty raw deal. It was a surprise he ever laughed at all. That moment in the forest when he was messing with me was one of the few times I'd seen him loosen up.

I wondered if it was because of the magic circle, or Jelka, or maybe for a moment he'd forgotten just how much everything sucked somehow.

"Don't worry," I said.

"We're going to kill them. All of them."

"No," Kasia said.

"No?" She grinned and put up her fist.

"We're going to super kill them." Vasil laughed.

"Thank you, girls." Kasia certainly was coming out of her shell more and more, though I suppose I'd be down to super kill the people who wanted to [Fireball] me as well. Come to think of it, I was one of those people! So I actually didn't need to suppose anything at all. I'd killed people for less, and the Church had tried to flambée me on multiple occasions. Hells, at this point it would be weird if I wasn't holding a grudge, despite being the kind and forgiving person that I was.

And how come Kasia saying "super kill" made him laugh, but my joke didn't? Super killing was something I usually said, but I didn't say it to be funny. Why was it funny when she said it? He rarely laughed at any of my jokes. Was it because I reminded him too much of his daughter? Or maybe he thought I was going to die and that made him too sad to laugh. I'd be sad too if I thought I was going to die. Not that I had any intention of dying, so I was feeling pretty good, all things considered.

Would probably feel even better with Desecrate or Court of Flame in my hand. With that kind of power I wouldn't just be super killing people, I'd be super mega killing them. In an unfunny but cool way. I clapped my hands together.

"Alright, people. Enough joking around. Let's head to The Tail End. Once I get those runes I'll be super mega killing people." I opened the satchel a bit to see if Vasil was laughing. He wasn't. I looked at Kasia, and she also wasn't laughing. Was I just not funny? Not that I was trying to be, of course. While we were walking to the inn I scanned the houses we passed. None of them had the eye symbol, in fact they didn't seem to have any symbols at all. At least not that I could see.

What did Stvora look like to these people then? Jagoda had a small altar in her house, but I hadn't noticed any symbols on it either. Besides the herbs on the altar there had been nothing. What was the significance of that? Was it even for Stvora? I doubted they saw him as a bunch of thrown together herbs. Maybe it actually was the most accurate representation of him—the empty altar. Since he never showed himself it's not like anyone could draw any pictures or create statues of him.

That unfortunately also meant I had no way to identify people that could be on my side. And who did the statue we'd encountered represent? The innkeeper? Maybe they were related, or maybe the class was just something people in this village liked to take. Either way, the fact that they had a statue of some guy in their village, and nothing for their all-powerful god was intriguing. Maybe Melchior would be able to give me some answers. Before I knew it we'd arrived back at the inn.

When we got inside, it was a bit busier than before, and seemingly most of the people who'd been there last time were still there. This time we got more looks.

"Back already?" Melchior said with a grin.

"And in one piece? Decided to give up, did you?"

"Give up?" I scoffed.

"Please. The tree is gone and the cat is back with Jagoda." His grin faltered and his eyebrows shot up.

"You're lying." I took the Vortex rune from my satchel and held it up to him.

"Does this look like I'm lying, Melchior?" This drew some oohs and ahs from the bystanders… Bysitters? Would you still call them bystanders if they were sitting? It felt like bysitters wasn't a real word, even though it should be. What if someone was walking? Would that make them a bywalker? Would flying make them a byflyer? That didn't sound right.

"What are you talking about?" Melchior asked.

"What? I didn't say anything," I said.

"Byflyers?" Did I say that out loud? No way. I lifted my nose.

"I don't know what you're talking about." Melchior looked like he wanted to say something, but couldn't think of the words. I slapped the bar, then leaned in and whispered.

"Jagoda told me you have some runestones for me." He looked even more confused now.

"Runestones? I don't have any runestones. I don't know why she would say that." I pointed at the ceiling.

"She said to tell you I was sent by the big guy. That I'm on your side."

"The big guy?" I leaned in even closer and hissed, "Look, man, why are you making me say this with all these people around? The big guy in the sky. I'm going to kill the whole Church. Every last one of them. And for that I need runes, so I can make some weapons powerful enough to do that."