Chương 14: Bullying Children Into Worshiping Me… as a Rock?!

as a Rock?!

Chapter Fourteen Bullying Children Into Worshiping Me… as a Rock?! By the time the sun rose, Alice found herself full of an indifferent determination. Nothing had made sense for the past sixteen years. She was a rock, after all. What was the worst thing that could happen if she played god for a little while?

"And all that faith..." Alice could not help but coo with delight as she recalled the euphoria that had filled her rock body when Urd had broken down in prayer. [Geological Memory] may have allowed Alice to relive the scene over and over, but the sensation itself remained but a memory.

"I'd be lying if I said I didn't want to experience more of that."

"Mmmm..." Urd scratched her eyes groggily as if woken by Alice's thoughts. But had they been thoughts? Alice would have to be more careful from now on if Urd could hear her.

"G-Good morning," Alice said, a little awkwardly, as the child sat up. Urd had fallen asleep almost immediately after the previous night's prayer. Urd blinked. She looked around in a daze and then very slowly touched her face. Like a leper inspecting themselves for cuts, Urd's bandaged hands raced up and down her body in numb disbelief.

"It wasn't a dream..." Urd said quietly, and then she started, her eyes growing wide, as she stared at Alice the Rock.

"I'm...! I'm sorry!" The child bowed her head so quickly she ended up banging it painfully against the rotten floorboards. Alice winced as she felt the pain electrify Urd's senses, but the child made no whimper. She remained prostrate before Alice the Rock.

"It's OK, it's OK!" Alice said quickly. She was not altogether sure what Urd was even apologizing for.

"You're feeling... better?" Urd looked up, her eyes wet and glittering with awe.

"Y-Yes..." She opened and closed her mouth several times before she could find the right words.

"You... You're a god..."

"Y-Yes! Yes, I am!" Alice said, feeling a little heat color her nonexistent cheeks.

"Alice of the Merry Weather!" She probably didn't need to introduce herself a second time, but she was new to this whole god business. A little awkwardness was to be expected.

"Wooow..." Urd stealthily pinched herself, which made Alice want to giggle.

"Th-that drunken old Priest only ever talked about Zora... I don't think I've... I-I'm s-sorry, Master Merry Weather, but I don't think I've ever... heard of you..." Alice's nonexistent blush only strengthened at these words. This was the second time she had heard about Zora. Thankfully, Alice had not spent the entire night daydreaming. She had a plan.

"Well, I have been... sleeping!" Alice said dramatically. That was a common enough trope. Slumbering gods and ancient evils. Alice felt rather satisfied with her lie.

"I am very, very... very old? I'm not surprised if, well, some people have forgotten about me."

"Wooooooow!" Alice's lie found a captive audience in Urd.

"I had n-no idea, Master Merry Weather. A god... Here in Waterhold... I bet even Axel doesn't know about that." And then Urd made a little squeaking sound like an overexcited chick.

"A-Axel! I need to... And Iver, as well!" Alice was very heartened to see a smile on Urd's scaled face. The smile did not last for long, however.

"Oh." Her excited squealing died, and her face paled as she looked back over at Alice the Rock. A shiver ran through her body, and she pressed her face against the rotten floorboards again.

"S-Sorry! I was... I don't... I'm sorry!" Alice rolled her nonexistent eyes. She supposed this was how most people would react if they were sharing a room with a god.

"Who is Axel?" Alice asked, hoping to coax another smile out of Urd.

"And Iver? Are they friends of yours?" Urd blushed and looked away from Alice the Rock.

"Y-Yes..." she said, very quietly.

"My friends... B-B-But you probably... They're just... They aren't anyone special." But Alice was all smiles as Urd tripped over her words. It sounded like Alice had just found her next two followers. While the thought was a little crass, it would probably be easier to trick two stupid kids into thinking she was a god than a pair of adults.

"I would like to meet them," Alice said, and Urd practically leapt to her feet.

"Eh? M-Meet? You want t-to meet?" A bright smile returned to her face. But just like before, it quickly faded.

"Are... Are you sure it's... safe?" Urd asked, her eyes drilling a hole into the rotten floorboards.

"Last night..." Alice was not surprised by Urd's reluctance. She shared none of it, however. There had been time enough to wonder about Dale, and the more she had thought about it, the less she worried. The man had lost an arm. That was no small scratch. Dale would have been bleeding like a pig in a deserted alley, and who was to say Petre had not done even more damage after Alice had run off with Urd? Odds were Dale and Petre had killed each other last night. And even if he is alive! I have a weapon now.

Urd did not seem to hear Alice as her thoughts turned to [Smite].

"You have nothing to fear," Alice said with as much pomp as she could muster.

"I am Alice of th-the Merry Weather! I won't let anyone harm you!" Urd blinked, blinked a second time, and then collapsed once more in prayer. Act of faith performed by believer. Received experience! Received faith!

"Oooo..." Alice cooed as an infusion of faith filled her rock body. It made her feel lightheaded in a tipsy sort of way.

"I am good at this god business." There was no food in the derelict building, so Urd broke her fast on prayer and several mouthfuls of air. She hid Alice the Rock beneath her oversized gown and headed into town. Jacked into Urd's senses with [Divine Communion], Alice could feel the hungry rumble of the child's stomach. It was a shame Alice did not have any skills that could help. Her thoughts did not linger on breakfast for long, however. It had been one thing to share Urd's senses when night covered the town.

It was quite another to have the morning smells and sounds wash over her as a hundred different households awoke all at once. Nobody seemed particularly happy to see Urd, however. They passed men, women, children, and livestock on the streets, and aside from the goats, almost everyone sneered as Urd crept past. The Girl tried to cover her face with her hands, her usual bandages left discarded somewhere in yesterday's flight.

It was not hard to imagine why she was getting the nasty looks, though Alice still had no idea what dragonrot was.

"Urd?" Alice said, and the child jumped a little.

"What... You said something about dragonrot earlier."

"Y-Yes, Master Merry Weather?" Urd squeaked, seeming to shrink at the word. The bloody scabs that had once filled her face looked much smoother than they had before, but they still resembled the scales of some monstrous beast.

"What, uh, is it?" Alice asked, and she almost immediately regretted the question. Were these scales something sensitive like an STD? Urd did not answer right away. A familiar battle seemed to spread across her face, one Alice was not entirely sure the meaning of.

"M-My parents...?" The Girl sputtered after a moment.

"They were... They were touched by Kaos, and s-so... Don't... Don't you know...?" Alice blinked at the mention of Kaos. This was certainly the first time she had heard the word. She did not particularly care for Urd's confusion either. Was dragonrot and Kaos something Alice the God should have known about?

"D-Don't worry about it," Alice said awkwardly.

"Forget I ever asked." Urd's confusion was written clear across her scaled face, but she made no further comment. The way grew busier, the streets filling with carts and farm animals and tradesmen running this and that way. The crowds grew large enough that few and fewer seemed to even notice Urd and her dragonrot.

"Th-there!" Urd broke her silence with a squeaky outburst. She pointed excitedly to a crowded storefront. Many of the patrons had wooden bowls in their hands, and the unmistakable smells of breakfast were wafting out from the wooden building.

"A-Axel!" Urd's shout was scarcely more than a whisper. She seemed too petrified to approach the throng in front of the store.

"Axel! Iver!" Alice could not be sure who Urd was calling to exactly, but a young boy caught her attention. Alice did not think Urd was calling to any of the adults who slurped up whatever was in their bowls.

"Is it the boy with brown hair?" Alice asked, and Urd nodded her head quickly.

"I-I'll grab his attention!" Alice smiled inwardly as she prepared for another wave of adoration from her first believer. Focusing on the brown-haired boy, Alice pulled on his ear and whispered a simple desire.

"Turn around!" Alice was very satisfied to see the brown-haired Axel turn around with a frown. His frown only deepened when he saw Urd start to wave her bandaged hands excitedly.

"W-Wooow!" Urd squealed with delight as Axel patted someone beside him.

"You really...! Wooow!" Alice blinked in confusion as a second boy turned around. His face looked identical to Axel's. The twins would have been indistinguishable from one another if the one called Iver had not cut his brown hair very short. Neither seemed particularly enthused to see Urd. Both Axel and his twin had sunken faces that spoke to their poverty more so than their threadbare clothes. They broke off from the group crowded around the building and stomped warily over to Urd.

Alice's discomfort grew only larger as she studied their identical frowns.

"Those... are your friends?" Alice asked, and Urd nodded excitedly in answer. She shifted Alice the Rock slightly beneath her gown.

"I-I bring th-them bread from Momma's s-sometimes, and they let me play with them!"

"I see..." Alice said, and she tried not to let her own schoolyard trauma color her thoughts. Some people just looked grouchy. It did not necessarily mean that-"Where're yer bandages, rotface?"

"Hmph." Alice felt a nonexistent vein twitch as Axel spewed the insult as a greeting.

"H-Hi, Axel," Urd said with a nervous wave. She tried to cover her face.

"I... I lost- " Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

"You tryin' ta get us sick, Rotty?" Iver said, his face scrunched up in revulsion.

"Why're you here? Shouldn' you be at Momma's House? You got any bread?"

"N-No... I don't... I actually- " Whatever excitement Urd had shown before disappeared as she began to trip over her words, her scaled face turned to the ground.

"I... I found- ""No bread?" Axel sighed, exasperated. Both boys stood almost three heads taller than the hunched Urd.

"We left the line, rotface. I thought you had somethin' for us."

"I... I do...!" Urd wore a pained grin as she shifted Alice the Rock and stepped closer.

"I found s-something really- ""Don't you get close ta us without your bandages!" With a flash of fear, the long-haired Axel shoved Urd away.

"Oy!" Alice shouted as the last of her patience disappeared.

"This little shit!" She had never used [Smite] before, but it turned out to be an easy skill to use. Just like with [Bless], Alice simply imagined how much she wanted this rotten brat to suffer, how he should be punished for pushing Urd like some snot-nosed bully. Someone overhead shouted something and then a mist of wet brown appeared. A moment later, Alice smelled the horrible smells of an unflushed toilet splash across the road below.

"Ugh!" Axel cried in disgust. Someone overhead had dumped a full bucket of night soil out their window.

"That's for being mean to Urd!" Alice whispered into the bully's head with a vicious [Malevolent Whisper]. Axel's brown eyes went wide as he spun around, searching for Alice's disembodied voice.

"Look at what you've done!" the short-haired Iver said, advancing on Urd who had gone as pale as milk.

"Bringin' this bad luck on us!"

"I...! I didn't...!" Urd retreated several steps and then tripped over her own feet. Alice the Rock bounced out from her gown and onto the road. Axel was still spinning around in search of Alice's voice, but Iver squinted down at Alice the Rock with dull-eyed suspicion.

"What's that?" Iver asked, and he leaned forward to pick up the black stone.

"You came here just to show us some stupid- " Alice was a furnace of fury as she grabbed hold of the boy's ear. Even if he was a bully, she did not want to curse him with certain death.

"Don't touch that!" she shouted, though her whisper did not reach him in time. Curse Spread: Iver Black Severity: Powerful Received experience! Received cursed energy!

"Wh-what?!" Iver dropped Alice the Rock and stumbled away.

"Who... Who said that?!" Achievement Unlocked: Spreading Some More Misfortune"Come on!" Alice cursed loudly, though neither boy noticed.

"You idiot!"

"I-I'm shorry!" Urd sputtered, bursting into tears. Alice quickly forgot all about her fury.

"I-I'm s-shorry, Master M-Merry Weather!"

"Eh? Did you...?" Alice realized Urd must have heard her internal shout.

"D-Don't worry, Urd! I'm not angry! Not with you!"

"I heard a voice!" Iver was telling the stained and soiled Axel.

"It shouted at me, it did!"

"Please forgive me!" Urd continued as tears rolled down her scaled face. Alice wanted to pull out her nonexistent hair. Between Urd's weeping and the twins spinning around like drunks, many of the adults crowded around the street had started to stare at them.

"It's fine, it's fine!" Alice told Urd.

"Let's just... just go somewhere else, OK?" It took a couple [Serpent's Whispers], but Urd and the twins were coaxed into a nearby alley. Passersby could still be seen and heard, but the deserted stretch of alley offered a little bit of privacy.

"Wh-what's going on, rotface?" Axel asked. He might have looked more intimidating if he hadn't still been covered in the contents of someone's toilet.

"What... What is this?"

"I heard a voice!" Iver said, and he took a bullish step towards Urd's misery.

"Did you...?! What you do to us?!"

"Shut up!" Alice snapped instinctively, whispering into Iver's sunken face.

"Just shut up and listen to everything Urd says!" She had not intended to use the [Malevolent Whisper], but something about the boy's continued taunts scratched at several schoolyard wounds of her own. Iver spun around like a ballerina as his face lost all of its color.

"Th-there it was again!" Iver shouted. He turned to Axel.

"D-Did you...?! It told me ta... ta listen to Rotty!" Alice sighed deeply. These two brats were really ruining her fun. She was starting to think they were not the ideal believers.

"Urd," Alice said, and The Girl jumped.

"I need you to... to be my spokesperson."

"Eh...?" Urd did not seem to understand. Her voice trembled as she looked down at Alice the Rock.

"Sp-spoke... whatson?"

"I need you to speak for me," Alice said. It was not as if she could use [Malevolent Whisper] over and over. She had already used up three whispers.

"You need to be... my voice." Urd's face had been stained with fear, but at these words a faint heat filled her scaled cheeks.

"Me...?" Urd pointed at herself, and the twins squinted at her suspiciously.

"What're you doing?" Iver asked.

"Who're you talkin' to?"

"Tell them you are my spokesperson!" Alice said.

"That you are my voice!"

"I... I'm Master's..." Urd struggled to spit out the words.

"Well, they told me t-to tell you..."

"Who told you?!" Iver interrupted. Urd opened and closed her mouth several times before she rooted around her gown and revealed Alice the Rock to the twins. Iver took a nervous step away. The boy could not have known he was cursed, but he certainly remembered Alice's shout.

"This... This is Master Merry Weather..." Urd said, her hands trembling.

"Her v-vessel..."

"Tell them the voice they heard was my voice," Alice said.

"Th-the voice they heard...?" Urd repeated, tilting her head in confusion.

"Go on! They'll understand."

"Th-the voice you heard...! That was Master's voice," Urd said, daring only a small peek at the tall boys.

"She's... a god..." Axel and Iver exchanged a worried look.

"You mean Zora?" Axel said, pointing at Alice the Rock.

"But Zora's- ""N-No!" Urd said defiantly before Alice could offer instruction.

"This is Master Alice! Of the Merry Weather!"

"There ain't no Merry Weather," Axel said automatically, and the rebuttal seemed to rekindle some of his earlier snot-nosed confidence.

"Master Merry Weather's been..." Urd began, but she seemed to shrink as Axel's face grew darker and darker.

"She's been... been asleep...?" Axel shook his head, making his long, messy brown hair bounce around him.

"You're playin' a prank!" he said defiantly. He took a threatening step towards Urd, who stumbled backwards.

"You and your rotbreath are j-just doing funny stuff to our heads!"

"N-No..." Urd squeaked, and Alice really regretted ever allowing Urd to introduce her to these two buffoons. Number of active curses: 4 (4) Powerful (1) Moderate Received cursed energy! The notification flashed across Alice's vision like a bothersome gnat.

"That's just s-some rock!" Axel shouted, and he lunged forward, his skinny hands outstretched.

"These idiots!" Alice roared with a hint of panic. She shooed away the notification as the twin grew closer to Urd's trembling misery. Without even thinking, she wished something bad would happen to the boy. Clearly being covered in night soil was not enough! [Smite] activated the next moment. Rather than grab Urd, Axel's foot slipped on a patch of muddy ground. He stumbled past The Girl, right into the brick wall of the alley. Alice cringed as a meaty cruuunch filled the air.

Everyone in the alley seemed to draw in a sharp breath as Axel turned around, his face a messy crimson as blood poured down his broken nose.

"T-Tell these idiots that nobody is allowed to touch me!" Alice told Urd at once.

"Tell them this stone is... That it's holy! Tell them it's a holy object!" Rather than convey her divine proclamation, however, Urd seemed to collapse inward.

"Eh...?" The child looked down at Alice with a bloodless white face, her bandaged hands trembling.

"Am I...? Should I not have...?" Alice bit down hard on her nonexistent lip. Was nothing easy?" You can touch me!" Alice said, though she did not particularly care for the phrasing.

"Y-You are my spokesperson, remember? Only you can touch my vessel." Urd had been cursed and promised certain doom, but if the recent notification was any indication, [Bless] seemed to have weakened the curse. For whatever reason, the curse had not strengthened since then. Did that mean Urd could safely hold Alice the Rock while blessed? I should probably [B less] her again, though, Alice thought to herself with a sigh. It would be best to get rid of the curse altogether rather than just weaken it.

I'll need to b less th is idiot, too. As if he could sense Alice's thoughts, Iver filled the alley with a high-pitched panic.

"I... I touched it!" the tall boy said, seeming hardly to notice his twin's broken and bloody nose.

"I touched it and then... That means this... this Merry Weather will be angry with me?!" Urd said nothing, but looked down at Alice the Rock for confirmation.

"T-Tell him it'll be fine," Alice said weakly. She was ready to abandon these two. She could find less dimwitted followers elsewhere.

"I don't... I'm a kind god!"

"M-Master Merry Weather said..." Urd seemed to be rather stunned, though Alice was not sure by what.

"She... She is a kind god." Iver answered Urd's consolation with a miserable wail.

"Th-the Priest said gods get real angry when us humans don't listen to them!" He began to pull hysterically at his short brown hair.

"Why?! Why you bring that... that stone ta us? You ought ta have brought it to the Priest!" Alice instinctively shook her nonexistent head. She had not forgotten Mittica's talk about appraising Alice the Rock. The last thing she wanted was-"Y-You stupid idiot!" Alice blinked. Iver and Axel seemed to share in her confusion, as well.

"Y-You can't t-talk like th-that to a god!" Urd said, stamping her feet with a fury Alice had never seen before.

"G-Gods can hear... Master M-Merry Weather can h-hear everything you're saying! You need... You need ta apologize! Apologize and m-maybe She'll forgive you!" An awkward silence fell over the alley. Alice struggled with what to say, but was saved the need as Axel opened his mouth.

"An offerin'..." A trembling hand covered his bloody nose as he looked between Urd and Iver.

"Th-that's what gods want! Need ta give 'em an offering!"

"I don't have nothing ta give!" Iver whined miserably.

"I don't even have bread!" A strange look came over Axel's face as he looked down at his hand. His nose had stopped bleeding, but his palm had collected a small river of red.

"The Priest..." Axel said slowly, his voice thick with emotion.

"He always says the gods want blood, sweat, and tears... I got... I got all this blood here..." Alice was not sure how to feel about the direction of this grisly talk. It was hard to feel sorry for the two bullies, but at the same time they were still children.

"Is... Is that OK?" Urd asked.

"Eh?" Alice blinked as The Girl raised Alice the Rock to eye level.

"Do you...? Should they...?" Urd could not seem to find the right words.

"Y-Yes?" Alice said automatically. If a drop or two of blood would calm everyone down, she was not about to object.

"I-I'll accept that kind of... offering!" Urd nodded and then looked at Axel and Iver very seriously.

"M-Master Merry Weather will accept your blood offerings." Axel said nothing. He remained very still for several breaths, but then, biting his bloody lip, drew closer to Urd.

"N-No touching!" Alice reminded Urd as Axel reached for Alice the Rock.

"No touching!" Urd said defiantly, and Axel jumped back a step. The boy seemed a little confused, but then he brought his hand over Alice the Rock, his head bowed in a loose approximation of prayer. A couple beads of red dropped onto Alice the Rock. And then... Blood offering received from a non-believer. Received experience! Received faith! Skill Progress: Bloodthirsty [7 /10]"Oho..." Alice cooed, though the euphoric sensation came nowhere close to that of Urd's prayer.

"Still feels nice..." Just like before, her thoughts became a little silly as faith tickled her otherwise deadened senses. Perhaps that was why she decided to throw the boy a bone and give him a taste of her [Bless]. Alice felt nothing herself as she willed the boy's bloody face some relief, but she watched his own expression transform. His wariness became astonishment as he probed his face gingerly.

"Rotface was... telling the truth...?" Axel said slowly. Iver stepped forward next, eyeing his twin's astonishment with confusion. Alice was not sure how he intended to offer his blood, but then the boy rolled up the sleeve of his threadbare shirt.

"Ugh!" Alice wished she could look away as the short-haired twin scratched at a rather diseased-looking scab on his skinny arm.

"That is not the kind of offering I want!" Urd did not seem to hear her, however, and Iver waved his shaky arm over Alice the Rock. Another few drops of blood landed on her black sparkles. Blood offering received from a non-believer. Received experience! Received faith! Skill Progress: Bloodthirsty [8 /10]"I guess I should [Bless] him, too," Alice muttered to herself. Not that she liked the boy, but he did not deserve certain death.

Just like with Axel, Alice felt nothing herself as she willed the child healed, that he be spared the worst of her curse. The [Bless] worked all the same, however. A curse has grown weaker.

"Oh..." Iver stared wide-eyed at Alice the Rock.

"It... It really..." And he fell to his knees without another word, his hands clasped together in trembling prayer. Axel stared at his twin with a confused worry, but then he too fell to his knees and bowed his head. An unbeliever has been converted. Received experience! Received faith! An unbeliever has been converted. Received experience! Received faith!

"M-Master Merry Weather!" Alice snapped herself awake from the intoxicating infusion of prayer. She shouted in alarm as Urd bit savagely into her wrist. Alice had not even noticed the child yank away her bandages.

"Wh-what are you doing?!" Blood dribbled down the poor child's arm, the look on her scaled face impossible to understand.

"My... My blood may be dirty...!" Urd began, raising her bleeding wrist over Alice the Rock.

"But please...! A-Accept this... this offering!" Offering of blood received from a believer. Received experience! Received faith! Skill Progress: Bloodthirsty [9 /10] Requirements for [Class Advancement] have been met. Object of Worship: Rank F > Rank D New Skill Unlocked: [Voices of Prayer I] Instead of feeling excited about the new skill and rank, Alice was left full of frustration as white-hot pain raced up and down Urd's wrist.

"Y-You didn't have to do that!" Alice said as the child's blood continued to slide off Alice the Rock and onto the alley floor.

"That was so stupid! You need to put your band- " But the rest of her words died in her nonexistent throat as a vaguely familiar notification flashed across her vision. Acquired New Status Curse of the Dragon's Decay: For the crime of defiance, dragonkin are condemned to annihilation by The Fate s. Those with dragonblood in their veins will endure constant suffering should they come into contact with this cursed blood.