Volume 1: Path - [Envy Arc]
Chapter 52: Church Of Open Hand
"I need to resist... I need to, damn this shit, I knew something like this would be, but didn't think it would be this hard; luckily, I have the mental strength of a rank 5 awakener, otherwise I would already be one with Zelus. I should not feel sympathy for this guy; the more I feel sympathy for this guy, the more I lose my resistance." Caelus muttered to himself; his voice cannot be heard by anyone.
His view is from the third point of view; he can't interfere with anything he is seeing, so neither his voice nor touch is working.
Caelus's soul is trembling while trying to resist the amount of envy and hatred he is feeling.
Caelus looked at Zelus, who was being forcefully fed food into his mouth by the maid. The maid is doing all this so she will not die, and also because the son and daughter who were born before Zelus told her to keep him alive so they could play with Zelus whenever they get bored.
And just like that, a year passed by, and Zelus was still living in the same room with nothing being changed; even his height is that of a little boy of age 7.
As for the reason, "I don't know why I'm like this. I wish I could be like my older brother—handsome, strong, and tall. I wish to have a family that loves me, like the kids outside the palace have. A loving family that takes their children out to play or even feeds them with care and affection."
This ongoing thought continued for as long as he had enough stamina to think, and one year he fell into a coma more than 100 times. Every time he fell into a coma and woke up, all he spoke was "Just kill me, just kill me," or "Why, why? I didn't wish to be born like this. Why, why..."
Caelus is not an emotionless fellow; he is a human, and he has abundant emotions. He has emotions; that is why he tried to get his revenge.
Caelus is watching this; despite trying to resist giving any sympathy to Zelus, he can't stop showing him sympathy because who wouldn't? The things he has been seeing for the past 11 years are haunting for his eyes to look at. Caelus didn't think there would be a fate for someone worse than his own.
"Now, I understand you, Zelus, why you are so angry at being called ugly." Caelus understood why, and that is right in front of him: Zelus was angry and mad because his whole life as a child was harsher for him than any other child's could have been, and the reason is his face and body being so ugly that one would not treat him well.
The understanding of Zelus is making Caelus one with Zelus, but Caelus can't stop it; the resistance still continues despite knowing not being able to stop himself from being one with Zelus.
Just as Caelus was becoming sympathetic to Zelus, he got an idea, and the first step of the idea was to forcefully send the mental strength out of his soul.
Caelus, despite being in an unfamiliar place, from his analysis, is still sitting in the same place, which is the mind space, but his consciousness is in a different place; that is the only difference. So, Caelus sent his mental strength out of his soul, making the resistance of becoming one with Zelus to none, so now within a few seconds he would become one with Zelus, but his plan had already succeeded, so he just had to wait for this memory to be finished with, and he had already ordered the Thanaeris (butterflies) to help him out, and with how he sent his mental strength out of his soul body, it will reach those little fellas, and they can help him out since this whole thing is related to soul, and from what Caelus analyzed, soul is the source where all memories are stored.
'Let's think about it another time.'
Caelus immediately started becoming one with Zelus; Zelus's emotions are being shared with Caelus as Caelus's soul started merging with Zelus's body.
--
It is 13 years since Zelus was born, and today the Church of the Open Hand, who pray to the Goddess Seraphyne, also known as Mother of Grace.
They came to the castle because they received a prophecy from their goddess that there is a person in this castle who is going to turn into a demon, and it is going to be harmful for the whole world if one were to not kill that demon.
And this Lord of the City knows about supernatural stuff, because it is important for a government person to know about such things, and that is why he is making his children learn swordplay, as he didn't have any chance to awaken and become an awakener.
The city lord asked the deacon, who brought priests with him in a worry, "Why would there be a demon born in this castle, Deacon of Open Hand?"
"We don't know why, but it is for sure that there is going to be a demon spawn here soon, and this time we received the revelation directly from our Mother." The deacon said. And for that reason, the city lord has to agree because he can't offend the church when he himself is not powerful enough nor is an awakener himself.
The deacon has his eyes closed, and he starts using his mind to sense whether someone is a demon or not. He used his Leym energy to activate some kind of skill, causing all of the people to become still, and their minds were being checked thoroughly.
And Deacon didn't find anything that requires his attention; all are normal, but still they searched every possible room with Deacon and priests both using their mind skills, and they didn't find anything until Deacon felt a huge amount of hatred that he had never felt in his whole life, and the amount of envy he was feeling was massive and on the same level as hatred.
The city lord was just behind them; the deacon immediately turned back and asked, "Who lives in this room?" The tone was serious, and the city lord didn't say anything unnecessary and said his words truthfully, "In that room is where a d... my son is." He didn't say the word "disgusting" he was about to say because it would ruin his reputation, and the Church of the Open Hand cares about humans and living beings' lives more than any other church; if he were to say something like that, he would be executed or something more.
"Oh, then why did you not bring him to the main hall? And also, why is the door locked from the outside?" The deacon raised his questions one after another, causing the city lord to hesitate, and the deacon, who was still reading the mind of the city lord, understood what was happening and said to the priests, "Capture the whole family."
The Deacon opened the door to the room, and when he came inside, he saw a little boy of height less than 4 feet, and his hair is white just like all the city lord's family, and his eyes are green, but his hair is not that much as if an old man in his 90s, and his face is disgusting to look at, and his body looks so sickly with flesh sagging, but the Deacon didn't feel any disgusting emotion because he is a believer of Goddess Seraphyne, who is a Mother of Grace and also the Goddess that loves everyone equally.
As believers of the Mother of Grace, they have a rule, and that is to look at everyone equally unless one is a villain or a demon.
"This boy has suffered so much from the amount of hatred and envy he has been filled with; if he were to release all of this pent-up emotion from within his mind, then it would fill the entire city with those emotions. But luckily, he is not an awakener and cannot release it." The Deacon looked at Zelus's mind; the hatred, which is filled with black color, and the envy, which is filled with green color, are revolving crazily in this boy's mind space, and from the looks of the size of the mind space and amount of mental strength, the deacon has sensed the mental strength is of rank 5 awakener level.
"Even I, who rank 3, don't have this much mental strength despite being specialized in the mind element." The deacon muttered as he called out a priest who specializes in water.
"You use your holy water to purify this boy's body when you pull out his pent-up emotions."
"Yes, Sir."
Just like that, they started doing the process. The deacon used his mind skills to pull out the hatred emotion first; it was going to be dangerous to pull all of it at once, so he pulled it out slowly and put those emotions into solid form by willing with his mind.
They didn't get into any problems, first because the boy was unconscious, second because the boy didn't awaken, and third because they are experts at this.
"Deacon, my Leym energy is almost over again, and we have been doing this for over a day, and we still haven't finished. Just how much hatred does this fellow have?" a priest said.
"Now, I know Mother told us to purify or kill this one here; if we were to come a year or two from now, he would become a danger to everyone." Another priest said.
Right now over three priests are working together; everyone who has come to the purification mission has holy water, but some do not, but mainly holy water is an important element.
By the next day everyone is exhausted, and all the hatred is removed from Zelus's mind. With only Envy being left, suddenly something happened, causing the Envy emotion to flow out of Zelus's body.
[End Of Chapter 49]