Chapter 31: Exodus

The Holy City of Caelum, also known as the Ivory City, was the capital of the Theocracy and served as the main base of operations of the entire religion. It was where all the pilgrims and clergies converged at this time of the year to celebrate the foundation of the Church.

Yet this year, instead of the usual festivities, a grim atmosphere has engulfed the entire city. Instead of the mass parading the streets, the roads were filled with patrolling soldiers wearing shiny armors. News of an invasion has reached the capital and this wasn’t just any army. An unholy horde of undead spawns was on their way to the capital and so far all attempts to stop it weren’t successful.

In addition, news of a plague from Malatas had made Caelum to close its gate and forbad anyone to come in. The Church feared that this plague might kill even more people and they could not tolerate any undead to take a single step inside their holy sanctuary. Or so they said.

For each city destroyed, the horde gained both in numbers and strength. Not only that, disturbing rumors said that the army was actually being led by the late pope Vyncis along with a few Heroes of the past. How could such a thing be possible?

For years the Church and its followers have buried their leaders, their loved ones in the World’s Graveyard. And now their place of worship and prayer has become their nightmare. At these darkest moment, one question was in everyone’s mind: “Where is the Hero?”

Meanwhile at the Grand Cathedral of Caelum, where all political power of the Church lied.

“I cannot consent to this. We have to act!” shouted a priest.

The man was standing in the middle of a grand auditorium. Forming a circular crowd, the higher the person sat, the higher their rank. At the top an old man sat on a white throne made of stone. He held a similar staff to Vyncis and wore a golden garb, including a tall miter. That was because he was Gauwyn, the current pope of the Theocracy.

Underneath were the other cardinals and bishops, all high ranking members of the Church. As for the reason behind this meeting, it was because of the man standing in the middle of the room. A young man, perhaps too young to be a bishop, yet here he stood in front of all members of the congregation. And he had the audacity to challenge his superiors.

“I believe we have already discussed this issue, Father Maxime! We are to defend the capital until reinforcement comes.” Said irritatingly a cardinal.

“But so far we have yet to receive any response. And even if our allies have received our letters, who knows when they will come? I ask of you, as a member of the Church to open the gate of Caelum and let the people in. In addition to send our army to rescue those that are still left out there!” pled Maxime.

“We don’t know if these people are afflicted with the plague. If we let the sick in and infect our army, it would be the end when the undead horde comes here!”

“And are we supposed to just let them die out there? What happen to all our preaching of saving others?” yelled Maxime.

“What you said is only an ideal, bishop! You have to face reality. The situation is dire. We cannot afford to divide our army at this moment! This is a test from God and we must endure it!”

“What kind of test would ask us to sacrifice the lives of innocents just to save our own?”

“Maxime, I understand your sentiment. We all do. But I ask for your patience here. Only a few days and our allies will surely come. Until then the gate must remain closed!”

“To you who is cowering in fear behind these walls, it might seem like a few days. But to the people out there, fighting for their lives, we are all the hope they got. It’s precisely at this moment that we must show our faith through our actions, not with pretty words.” The young bishop preached.

 “ENOUGH!” suddenly an elderly voice echoed inside the hall. Everyone stayed quiet, knowing the owner of the voice: pope Gauwyn. “This matter is not up to debate, Father Maxime! The gate stays closed! In these times of needs, we need to pray for the people. The congregation is now adjourned! May the God watch over us!”

The Pope has spoken. And his authority shall not be challenged. Even Maxime knew that. Despite his numerous calls, no one has heeded any attention to the bishop. To them, he was just a young one who didn’t know how the world worked.

Quietly everyone cleared the room, leaving only a defeated young man on his knees under the sunlight. He only wanted to help people. That was why he became a bishop in the first place. To spread the words of God, to save the innocents and to serve as the guide for the lost. Yet why did no one understand him?

‘Is this what our religion has fallen to? Dear God, please show me a sign! Please guide me in this dark moment!’

* * *

Alastor’s POV

“I have decided that I will go to Caelum.”

With my unexpected statement, everyone looked at me with strange eyes.

“Did I miss something? Why would you want to go there? I mean why now?” Ikarus bombarded me with questions.

“Just something I need to take care of. Let’s say… family matters!” I didn’t want to tell them everything Odium told me yet. Have I decided to, I believed it would only make the matter worse. Especially for the girls since they have been sticking up to me like glue.

“All right! When do we depart?” asked Maria.

“Well it’s hard to say but … I will go there alone this time!” and here came the breaking news.

“What? Why?” both Ikarus and Maria yelled at me at the same time. I was sure this would happen. I could feel the stares of both of them, even from Stella on me.

“There is something I need to confirm. And by that I mean by myself. I wish that you will respect my decision so promise me that you won’t follow me!” I looked the girls sternly.

“But….”

“Please! I will only leave for a few days. I will be back before you even miss me!” I implored.

“….If you are that keen on leaving then we will oblige! But promise that you will come back safely!” said Ikarus with a sad expression.

“If you die I will find you and kill you myself!” Maria grumbled.

‘That doesn’t even make sense!’ was what I wanted to say but I refrained from doing so. Best to go now before they changed their mind.

Having said what I came for, I quickly went out of the room. But not before I secretly passed a small message to Alice, or rather Lilith, on my way out: “Find your own way and meet me at the following location outside Caelum at midnight!”

With that done, I headed to Amelia’s chamber in order to ask for her portal. The thing really was convenient. I could go everywhere I have been in the past just in a matter of seconds. I needed to learn this magic when I could.

.....

…..

…..

“So this is the Holy City of Caelum.”

I was standing on the high walls of Caelum, looking down on the capital. It was a rather impressive architecture design if I must say. The city was built in a circular shape, divided in multiple layers of rings separating different districts with the Grand Cathedral at the center. Surrounding it was the pure white walls called the High Walls of Caelum that seemingly reached the sky.

To religious devotees, these walls represented their purity. They who saw the world outside as a corrupted place while the only place that remained sacred and pure was behind these barriers. Some even dedicated their entire lives to stay within the city, never venturing outside.

At least they got one thing right about the world. But were they so blind by their faith that they could not see that the same thing can be said about Caelum? To me it looked like a prison, especially with the stench of fear filling the air right now. I wondered if everyone inside the wall could see anything outside the wall. Or were they just like frogs sitting at the bottom of a well, ignorant of the world outside?

“Enjoying the breeze, Alastor?” a voice spoke to me.

“You have arrived Lilith. Here I was wondering if you would show up!” I said.

“You asked me to come here didn’t you?”

“Yes I did but I wasn’t sure how you would do that. Did you use a portal similar to Amelia’s?” I asked.

“In a sense. I just use the Nexus like every proper citizen would.” Lilith grinned.

The Nexus, also commonly known as the Gates, was an ancient artefact with unknown origin. There was a total of seven distributed across the world: one in Oros and seven in Mara. Each had the form of a stone archway and together they were interconnected. Much similar to the magical portal, all the Gates were interconnected, which meant that you could use the one in Oros to fast travel to Ceadric in a few seconds.

In fact if you looked at the map, the location of each portal coincided with all the major cities:

        the Golden City of Cedra of the Kingdom of Ceadric,

        the Iron City of Eiseinheim of Zagon Empire

        the Ivory City of Caelum of the Theocracy

        Galahad, the Jewel of Malatas

        Canaan, City of Firmament Spires.

Apparently these Gates existed even before any of the nowadays countries were even born and civilization was formed around the Gates, which explained their convenient locations.

There were actually two others. One was in the ruins of the old kingdom of the dwarves but was destroyed when the volcano exploded a few years ago. The other lied somewhere deep inside the forest to the east of Malatas where the beastman tribes resided.

Except for Avant-Heim who was very restrictive in term of visitors and had no Gate, the others countries were fairly open as this made travel much easier in long distance. However much like the portal, it seemed that the Gate did not allow a large group to come at the same time. This was rather convenient as it would avoid the situation where a country could use the Gate to invade another one.

Still there was many guards and mages keeping watch on the Gate at all time and you needed a certified document given by the royal family in order to use one. Because of these strict regulations, only a small group of privileged people could afford to use the Nexus while the rest would have to use the regular roads for travel.

But still that didn’t explain how Lilith came here. Yet she was here with me. It could only mean one thing.

“Nexus? Are you saying that there is a Gate in Ragna?” I inquired.

“Of course there is! There used to be an old kingdom far to the North of Mara but one day the people of that kingdom vanished in thin air without a trace and with time the old ruins sank into the ground. However the Gate remains untouched even until today. The only problem is it also sank with the old capital but I have a friend who lives underground and found it a while ago. With just a little maintenance and it works like a charm!” Lilith grinned.

“Why do I feel like you know a bit too much about the Nexus? Repairing one in just a few hours? It took years for all the mages and researchers to figure out how it works.” I questioned.

“I created them in the first place so of course I know how they work, dummy!” the little girl confessed.

“What? You made them? For what purpose? I mean they are useful in every aspect but I find it hard to believe that you would just build them and leave them there for the Primes to use it.”

“Of course not! Did anyone teach you about the Exodus? It’s not my fault if some bastard finds it and activates them again.” she scolded me.

“So you are the Old One behind the Great Exile?”

Mephisto once told me about the tale of Exodus. An incredibly story about the exile of the demons that I found hard to swallow at first. However if what Lilith said was correct then it wasn’t just a legend. But that story would be for another time. Right now we must find one of children, Sinforma.

Together with Lilith, we followed the road to the south, toward the undead horde. On the way there, I have spotted numerous caravans trying to get in Caelum but judging from the state of the city and the barricades surrounding it, I doubted any of these people would manage to come in.

In a way this was my fault for ruining these people’s lives. I was the one who created Sinforma after all. And he only did this to adhere to my will. I might not want to admit it but I didn’t care less about any of these people. Women, children, the old, the innocents, none of that mattered to me. For all I knew, they either stood in my path or would be used for my goal. One way or another, they would die. It was as simple as that.

I wondered why though. Have I changed into a heartless person or was I like this since the beginning? Perhaps the death of Shana awoke something inside me, or took away something else.

I didn’t know about Maria but Ikarus wouldn’t probably be happy with what I was about to do here. That was why I decided to leave everyone back at the castle. Lilith only came since I might need her help against this God but I wanted to confront him alone if possible. I couldn’t rely on anyone to help me now. I didn’t want to lose anyone else. I had enough of that already.

But what would I do if this would make Ikarus leave me? Or Maria?

‘Meaningless thing to worry about, Alastor!’ a voice range in my head. This guy again.

‘Don’t go around speaking in my head like that, Magnus!’ I spoke in my mind.

‘It’s for your own good! Instead of worrying about others, just do what you want to do! If they are truly on your sides, they will stay. If not then you have one less thing to worry about!’

‘Shut up! You know nothing about me, Magnus!’ and here he was gone. Ever since he has possessed me, I haven’t spoken to him yet. I just didn’t want to. Like Odium said, this guy still hided a lot from me and he lived right inside my head.

…..

I needed to calm down a bit. Everything just kind of pissed me of these days. That was not good. I better focused on finding this son of mine.

“Alastor! Up ahead!” Lilith called out to me.

It seemed we finally found the horde. From afar I could see a trail of torches on the downside of the mountain numbering in thousands. Judging from the size of the mountain, the trail must be for miles. If we took in account the undeads who didn’t hold torch, they must be at least ten thousands in numbers.

The sounds they made, bones clattering with armors, the eerie , their steps, echoed for miles away.

In the frontline were undeads riding skeletal horses wearing protective mail. However the armor seemed to have seen better days because of all the rust and dirt. The horses couldn’t be more terrifying. Red eyes and icy breath, they still had a part of their flesh here and there.

Behind them were zombies with hollow eye holes wearing priest garb with various pattern and colours. They must be members of the Church and their body clearly looked like they have been taken care of much better than the rest as it wasn’t broken or had any missing part. Pale skin with bones visible even through the skin, they formed a ring with an old undead in the middle holding a giant staff. That old man must be someone important in his past life.

Right beside the clerics were a few others undeads that clearly were stronger than the rest. Perhaps they were heroes in the past.

But what me most was the dragon flying above the army. I didn’t expect to see an undead dragon at this place. Its wings were as large as a building and it had nothing bones. How could it even fly at this state?

Without hesitation I stepped onto the road, right on their path. Spotting me, the horde stopped their march all of the sudden. Then they divided into two sides, making a path for someone to come out. It was that old man undead I saw earlier with the clerics.

“I thank you for coming all this way, Father!” the old man bowed to me.

“Are you Sinforma? You seem older than I thought you are.” I said.

“We are all Sinforma!” shouted all the undead at once “We await your command, Father!”

“Our first priority is to defeat the God that has recently appeared! Do you know where he or she is hiding?” I proclaimed.

“I have also spotted its presence a few days ago but since then there has been no action or whatsoever.”

No action? There was an undead army marching right toward the capital and that God didn’t do anything? Was it not here to deal with this problem? If not then why would it be here? Unless…

“Sinforma, you are not the target!” I declared.

“What do you mean, Alastor?” asked Lilith.

“Eden specifically said that the Gods are coming for me. However he never said that they knew where I am. I think that this God doesn’t know my whereabouts.  But he thinks that I might be responsible for the rise of the undeads so he is waiting for me to show up. I am the target!” I explained.

It would make sense that this God had no idea about my location. They were simply the first of the primes races who were given a lot of power. But they were not omnipotent like Eden.

“If this person is indeed waiting for me then I won’t make him wait any longer. But not before I make a grand entrance: the world will see its Demon Lord.” I proclaimed.

“What are you planning, boy?” Lilith looked at me with strange eyes.

“Lilith, I will have to ask you to reenact Exodus once more. But this time we are not the one running away!”

“Are you sure, Alastor? I never thought you as the type of person capable of something like that! It won’t be pretty at the end!” Lilith said with a worried expression.

But I only smiled back at her. God or not, I would use them all. This would be the grand debut of my conquest.

“Let’s go everyone! We have a city to purge!”