Chương 18: Getting Kidnapped by a Priest as a Rock?!

Chapter Eighteen Getting Kidnapped by a Priest as a Rock?! The Priest wore long black robes that, much like the rest of his appearance, looked as though they had not been washed in several months. The man's arrival seemed to spook Alice's useless followers almost as much as the supposed Puck Boys.

"I-I didn't do nothin'!" Erik shouted through swollen lips. He glanced warily at Urd and then started to run away. He did not get very far, however. The shabby Priest bent over and picked something up off the ground. He huuurled it down the street, the shape revealing itself midway to be a rock as it spun by.

"Gah!" Erik loosed a cartoon sound of pain as the rock collided with the back of his head. He fell face first and cracked his head against the ground.

"Get away from that stone before it hurts you!" the Priest shouted as he rushed towards Urd. Fresh blood dribbled slowly down Erik's face as the boy struggled to push himself up.

"You drunk old man!" Mouse shouted as the Priest rushed past him towards a petrified Urd.

"You the one that throwed it!" The Priest stopped, turned to Mouse, ran back over to Mouse, and kicked him in the crotch.

"Shut up, boy!" the Priest shouted as Mouse crumpled onto the street in misery. The other urchins took that as their cue to vanish, leaving Urd and the twins alone.

"I'm trying to save your flea-infested lives!" The casual violence of the man's arrival was almost comical. But then he turned to Urd.

"That's a grudge stone, you stupid little girl!" the Priest shouted, and he bulldozed towards the still-petrified Urd.

"Put it down! Put it down right now!"

"No..." The squeak was all Urd could muster as the unwashed man drew closer. He seemed not to care about Red Shirt's corpse that lay only a few feet away. A distant sound tickled Alice's awareness as she received another prayer.... please...... I finally found it...... don't let The Fates take this purpose away from me... Alice was more than a little confused to hear The Fates mentioned, but it was not hard to guess what Urd was afraid of.

New Prayer Received Petitioner: Tyri Karlvold Category: Salvation Status: Believer (zealous) Description: Do not allow t he Priest to take away Tyri Karlvold's newfound responsibility as Alice the Merry Weather's voice. Would you like to accept this prayer? [Y/N] Alice's focus turned to the shabby Priest. She had heard about him more than just once. It was a shame he had chosen quite literally the worst possible moment to appear. B-But this is fine! Alice imagined this would be a much easier prayer to resolve.

Of course, I accept! [Tyri Karlvold]'s prayer has been accepted.

"Do you have wax in your ears?!" the Priest shouted.

"Put that cursed thing down!"

"Just leave!" Alice whispered into the Priest's head, though she immediately wondered if the desire was asking for a little too much.

"Just tell the children to go away! Th-that isn't a grudge stone." The Priest came to a stop before Urd. He was an eye-bulging tower of frustration as he leered down at the trembling child.

"Get your filth out of my head!" the Priest roared, and Alice's nonexistent eyes grew wide in shock. He was not looking at Urd. He was glowering at Alice the Rock.

"Outta my head, I say!" Urd tried feebly to stuff Alice the Rock underneath her gown, but the Priest merely reached down with two hairy hands and ripped the black rock from her. Curse Spread: Kuonrat Gaunt Severity: Moderate Received experience! Received cursed energy! Alice was too alarmed to give much thought to Kuonrat the Priest only receiving a moderate curse. Was she about to get stolen again?!

"Noooo!" Urd cried, jumping up and down pathetically as she tried to win Alice the Rock back from the tall man.

"Th-that's not...! That's...!" The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

"A grudge stone," Kuonrat said simply. His face was a mass of uncombed and uncut hair that hid the suspicious black eyes lying behind it.

"Noooo!" Urd wailed, and the poor child broke down into tears.

"Th-that's Master M-Merry Weather! She made me... She said... She's a g-g-god!"

"A god?" Kuonrat threw back his head and laughed.

"You are not thinking clearly, child. You are likely cursed. As am I, no doubt!" As Urd made another vain attempt to snatch Alice the Rock back, the Priest grabbed her arm and started to pull her down the street.

"Looks like most of yer friends ran off," Kuonrat said as he dragged Urd behind him.

"But come! Acolyte Anna will have some warm bread and soup! You have a hungry look to you. As always." Alice had been so preoccupied with the Priest that she had not even noticed Axel and Iver's disappearance. For some reason, the unwashed man continued to show no interest in Red Shirt's corpse.

"Noooo!" Urd wailed like a banshee. Alice herself was stunned beyond action. The man had appeared like a hurricane. Just moments before, Alice had been basking in the adoration of answering Urd's prayer, of having defeated that bastard of a bully. She had been worrying about finding better followers... And now most of her followers had abandoned her. Both she and Urd were being carried down a busy street.

It seemed like every pair of eyes in Waterhold watched as Kuonrat hobbled resolutely towards some unknown destination.

"Pleaaaaaaaase!" Urd begged, punching and smacking Kuonrat's black robes.

"Th-that's... You caaaaaaaaan't...!"

"You needn't shed those tears, little one," Kuonrat said, not unkindly. He looked over his shoulder at the miserable Urd.

"This is a wicked thing that has bewitched you. There'll be hot food to fill yer belly back at the abbey."

"U-Urd?" Alice suddenly realized she had been silent this whole while.

"Master?!" Urd looked up to where Kuonrat held Alice the Rock.

"Don't... You don't need to cry," Alice said, realizing she was repeating the Priest.

"Everything is... is fine! I'm Master Merry Weather, remember?" Urd sniffled glumly but nodded dutifully. Alice smiled inwardly and then turned her attention to the Priest.

"That's good," the unwashed man said as Urd quieted.

"Everything will be fine." He doesn't seem like a bad person, Alice thought to herself. He had thrown a rock at Erik and kicked Mouse in the crotch, but those two had certainly deserved it. He's nice to Urd, at least. She did not really want to hurt him, but she needed to get away.

"Sorry..." Alice said as she focused on the man and wished that something bad would happen. Nothing too bad! She would have to be careful now that [Smite] was Rank II. But something bad enough that would force him to let go of both Urd and Alice the Rock.

"O-Oy! Look out!" [Smite] activated almost instantly. There was a loud shout from further down the road and then a large goat came racing towards them with a musical thunk, thud, th u nk to its hooves. The wily goat lowered its head as it noticed the Priest, its curved horns ready to knock the wind out of his chest.

"I hope Urd doesn't get hurt," Alice said, though she was very happy that-"Get ye back!" Kuonrat shouted, and craaaack went Alice the Rock across the goat's head. The goat let out a frightened noise and then collapsed onto the street. A mud-stained farmer appeared the next moment, but all Alice saw was the unwashed fury of Kuonrat's face.

"YOU FOUL THING!" the Priest shouted. With one arm still wrapped tight around Urd's wrist, Kuonrat started to smaaash Alice the Rock against the wall of a nearby house.

"H-Hey!" Alice's vision became a dizzying back-and-forth as Kuonrat seemed intent on cracking open Alice the Rock against the stone wall.

"Nooooooooo!" Urd wailed, pulling and tugging on the Priest's unwashed black robes.

"Stooooooop! Pleaaaase!" Alice's nonexistent heart caught in her nonexistent throat after a particularly brutal sma aaaa sh. A small crack had appeared alongside the shiny black of her rock body.

"Stop it!" Alice whispered in a panic, grabbing hold of the Priest's ear. She prayed she had enough cursed energy for the [Malevolent Whisper].

"Stop hitting me!" Kuonrat stopped mid-swing, a look of comical surprise spreading across his face.

"Oho. You're a real nasty one, eh?! Some kind of spirit!" Alice said nothing. She almost certainly did not have enough cursed energy for another [Malevolent Whisper], but even if she had... There was something particularly terrifying about Kuonrat's attention.

"Listen here," the Priest said, glowering down at Alice the Rock.

"You try any more funny business, and I'll grind you down into dust."

"Noooooooooooooooooo!" Kuonrat jumped and seemed to deflate as Urd let out her loudest wail yet. He turned to the miserable child, and his expression softened instantly.

"We'll find ye a nice doll back at the abbey!" he said, which did nothing to console Urd.

"Wouldn't you rather have a nice doll than some cursed rock?" The rest of the walk was done largely in silence. Urd seemed to have cried herself into exhaustion, and Alice did not dare [Smite] the Priest or even trick him with a [Serpent's Whisper]. She had never, not once, thought about what would happen if her body was broken. Because Alice was a rock. She did not have blood or organs or... anything. She was just a rock, so what would happen if she was broken into two pieces? Would she control both halves?

Only the largest? And if she was ground into dust like the Priest had threatened...

"Ugh." Alice brought a nonexistent hand to her nonexistent mouth. The thought alone made her feel sick. This was definitely something she would have to experiment with, but she needed to survive this ordeal first. She did not have to wait long for their destination to finally arrive. The abbey was small and ramshackle. Alice had not seen much of Waterhold in the few weeks she had been here, but she was starting to suspect it was not the most prosperous town.

At the very least, she had yet to see anyone who looked like they belonged in a castle. Urd had resumed her wailing upon sight of the abbey, and so her tears filled the high-ceilinged sanctuary as they stepped inside. The long room looked very much like a Christian church, though Alice had never seen one so shabby and depressed.

"What. Is. This?"

"Eugh..." Kuonrat's expression curdled beneath his mountain of unwashed hair as he turned towards a throaty voice. A plump woman in black robes similar to the Priest's appeared in Alice's cone of vision. A white rope was cinched around her waist, and Alice briefly recalled Eva and the white robes she had worn beside the pond.

"You rotten brute!" the nun-like woman said, her arms akimbo.

"What're you doing to that poor child?"

"Euuugh..." Kuonrat sneered wordlessly a second time. He let go of Urd's arm and began towards a set of heavy wooden doors further back in the sanctuary.

"See that she's fed, Acolyte Anna." Urd tried to run after the Priest, but the Acolyte grabbed The Girl before she could take more than two steps.

"Come along, come along," Anna the Acolyte said.

"You don't want to follow that nasty man. We have some stew. Would you like some stew?" Alice slipped out of Urd's skin and focused on the Priest as he stomped through the wooden doors and into a cluttered office. What... What is he going to do? Alice wondered. She had been so worried about being smashed into pieces that she had not thought much about what else might happen. What is going to happen to me? Oddly enough, her thoughts turned to Dale.

The man had been terrifying because of the violence he shared with anyone and everyone who entered Alice's vision. Kuonrat seemed just as terrifying, but not because he would harm Urd. His violence was directed against Alice.

"Alrighty then," Kuonrat said, dropping Alice onto a crowded desk at the back of the office. He left her there as he started to open and close the desk's many drawers. He turned to the cabinets and shelves that ringed the office walls. All were busy with a hundred dozen different items, but the Priest seemed to have no trouble finding what he was looking for.

"This should do..." Kuonrat muttered to himself, and he turned back to Alice the Rock with several bottles and slips of paper in his hairy hands. The bottles he emptied into his mouth. The slips of paper he opened, revealing powders and roots, and these too he emptied into his mouth. His shabby face twitched with each swallow, and he started to rub his fingers together in an almost perverse fashion.

"Before I banish you, spirit," the Priest began, looking down at Alice the Rock, "I'll have a quick look with [Assess]." He plopped down at his desk and scooted a little closer. As if Alice the Rock were a crystal ball, he brought his gnarled hands beside her and began to massage the empty air in a rhythmic fashion. A strange sensation began to seep into Alice's nonexistent body. As the man's hands continued to swirl hypnotically, she could feel an unnatural cold tickle her senses.

Like rain finding its way through cracks in a ceiling, more and more of the unusual cold filled her rock body.

"Let us see..." Kuonrat whispered, the words barely heard.

"Show me your secrets..."