The priest laughed.
"What a heavenly coincidence, it's the same for me... well almost!"
"Oh really ?! Do tell!"
'Well! I had a revelation about what I had to do when the gods appeared to me in person on two occasions, the last of which was about thirty-five years ago.' he finally said.
Aleone froze, as if pierced by what she had just heard.
"Yes." He continued
The old man then turned round.
"Back then, when I was on my way to Toka village, to give my missionary sermons, one of them appeared again to me and asked me to carry an angel's egg down there and gave the method to awaken it. They spoke to me without opening their mouth. In fact, they were talking to my soul. Yes, that's it!"
He moved on, overtaking even Aleone, and continued his story, which was beginning to sound delirious.
"Of course at first, when I saw the appearance that one of my creators had taken on, I almost fell into the trap of temptation and doubt."
Mahilrik raised his head as if he was adressing his words to the ceiling... or perhaps the gods — his devious and crazy smile going from one ear to the other.
"As black as tonight's angel, but with three pairs of wings and a single horn on their forehead, over which a halo floated. Their strange eyes were not white like us mortals, but abysmal black, with scarlet pupils. A vision of both horror and paradise. It was indeed of the strangest. But I only had to witness one miracle to remember our first encounter, and to realise that this was a test they were putting me to."
The bishop began to cry while talking.
"My driver, who had fled at the appearance of my beloved master, was transformed into a statue of salt, and evaporated..."
He hugged himself.
"Immediately, the words written in our sacred book came back to my mind: Cursed be he who turns around and veils his eyes before the divine light, for he will lose the salt of his life! Blessed be he who affirms his faith in doubt and darkness, for to him will be promised a place under the tree of life in the eternal garden!"
Opening his arms wide, his face twisted by an expression mixing exaltation and madness, with tears rolling down his cheeks, Mahilrik continued his macabre story.
"I knew immediately that I was standing before one of my fathers, and I accepted the task they entrusted to me."
Aleone felt her feet give way.
"You... mean that..."
"But yes! The angel had barely hatched when I gave him my blood..."
The old man happily shuffled his feet, almost dancing, fully immersed in his frenzy.
He clearly hadn't been lucid for a long time now, Yugo was sure.
And as Karlen had briefly noticed before being put to silence, this old man, obsessed with his own religious madness, was amongst the most dangerous people, when talking about such a creature, with such flattering words as those he used.
The phrasing this priest used, exuded fanaticism, zeal and, above all, disillusion...
...As well as sheer madness.
"...And it washed this village of the stain that had befallen it. No more epidemics, no more deaths! Today, this town is pure and prosperous. Thanks to me!" He added, clapping his hand in rhythm to the melody of his footsteps.
The man looked like a child recounting one of his many amusing adventures. Except this time, it was about the death of over a hundred people and the destruction of a village.
Because of him, lives had been lost or shattered, homes completely destroyed and poor innocent people caught up in a vicious cycle of bad ideas and actions just to survive. And for some reasons, both Aleone and Yugo felt as if this wasn't his first time ending multiples live and playing god....
A god driven by madness.
He was, at that moment, the epitome of all evil a person could radiate.
A true devil in the guise of a preacher or a saint.
Clearly, a preaching devil!
Yugo, who was still in the background, observed the scene and slowly drew his sword, not entirely, but just enough so as not to alarm the cleric close behind him.
'These people are completely mad!'
He exhaled.
'Their deaths wouldn't bother anyone!' he thought.
Straightening his left knee a little and discreetly shifting his centre of gravity, he put himself in a stance of attack, should the slightest opportunity present itself.
He'd have to act quickly if it did, because in his current state, he wouldn't be able to endure a long confrontation.
Yugo ran his thumb over the guard of his sword and fixed his scarlet eyes on the bishop, taking the opportunity to make a quick survey of his surroundings.
The slightest inconvenience could derail the whole plan he and Aleone had put in place, which had so far been going smoothly.
But for his partner, things were different...
Aleone crumpled to the ground, tears streaming down her cheeks.
"Mama... Papa... It's because of-"
The bishop turned around.
When he saw Aleone, collapsed on the floor, a dejected expression took birth on his face.
He rolled up the sleeves of his cassock, swinging his arms as he did so, and gently tapped the floor with his sceptre.
"What is it, my child?" he asked, with a distant look, completely unaware of the seriousness of the words he had just spoken.
At that precise moment, she didn't seem to hear him, gloomy sparks of memory of that cursed day when she had lost everything, dancing in her pupils.
The pain she had felt that day resurfaced, and the torments of her entire life, caused by the appearance of that creature, were born in a dark outbreak of resentment and hatred that sank deep into the depths of her heart.
The words of the proverb that her mother sometimes repeated to her during their sessions studying the holy writings also resurfaced:
"Do not trust entirely in the words and deeds of so-called pious ones, for among the most seemingly righteous lurk preaching devils, ready for the vilest perfidy to divert the goods from the path of enlightenment! Use the free will we grant you, for by your faith and own actions, we accomplish our work."
The words "preaching devil" repeated over and over in her head.
She had already used this expression many times throughout her life to refer to people who displayed a friendly exterior but were secretly true swindler.
She even dealt with several of them, both attracted by her enticing look as well as, her own skills.
But this here was different.
The man in front of her was the preaching devil.
For all the despair, hatred, and resentment she — and many of the survivors of the Toka village catastrophe — had accumulated over the years, the light of a dark idea begun to shine in her soul.
She had to kill him.
No, she had to be the blade that would deliver just punishment on this person who looked physically human, but whose very essence rivalled the blackness of a Negacion.
She had to be the avenger of all the souls who were crying out for blood and justice for the torments they had endured on that dark day.
In this sense, she shouldn't just kill him, because that would be tantamount to considering the being in front of her as a human.
He wasn't one. He hadn't been for a long time.
She simply had to dispose of this humanoid-looking creature, responsible for all her misfortunes.
If the gods were as real as some people think, at this moment, they would be the first to advise Aleone to purify the world of this living plague.
So, no, she wouldn't kill him. For this man, the word "kill" would be a misnomer and far too exaggerated.
She simply had to punish him, by eradicating the evil from the very depths of his being. And this cure meant putting an end to his miserable; yet perfidious, existence.
Yet, despite what she was thinking, hatred and anger were the first to express themselves.
But... was it really so bad after all?
Uninterested in finding out the answer to that question, she let the flame of her hatred overtake her.
"YOUUUUU...!!"
She screamed as she jumped to her feet in fury.
Rushing at the old man, she tried to stab him with the knife in her hand, determined to cleanse the place — if not the world — from this human shaped animal. But the bishop's guard intervened quickly and grabbed her arm violently, pinning it between his shoulder and his other arm.
The pain made Aleone screeched, leaving her to drop the weapon, which fell to the ground.
At the same time, the man swept her off her feet and used the momentum to throw her over his shoulder.
The young woman felt herself floating for a moment, then saw the world spin.
The scene lasted less than two seconds, but for Aleone, it felt as if it had taken an eternity.
As she fell back onto her back, hitting her neck and nape on the cathedral's hard floor in the process, the shock cut out her breath.
She gasped for a moment and as soon as she could breath again, raised her head and opened her mouth.
"YUGO, KILL IT!" she yelled as the henchman turned her savagely and pinned her arm behind her back.
She screamed in pain as she felt her shoulder nearly dislocate.
The wording "it" confused Yugo for a moment and he froze, unsure if Aleone was really talking about the old man.
"You! You, preaching devil... I swear I'll kill you!" she screamed again, leaving every traces of respect aside.
To hell with honorifics. Monsters like this senile person didn't deserve the slightest bit of respect.
If anything he was better off d—
A blow to the head took her breath away again.
Aleone twisted despite the pain.
"Yugo, he's the madman behind Toka's Inci—..."
She was struck once more. The old man, not understanding much of the situation, rushed to the altar.
Wake up, O ang—"
But he didn't finish his sentence, As Yugo's sword pierced his chest on the right side, then the jugular vein, staining the chasuble and white cassock, a dark red.
The action happened so quickly that the henchman, still crouched over Aleone, didn't realise what was happening, his hand still raised to finish off his victim. And by the time he reacted, a knife had gone through his temple.
The blade went through his skull and brutally pierced his brain, releasing cerebral matter and a spray of blood that splashed onto the benches next to him, and on the woman's arm underneath.
At the same time, the bishop, determined to carry out the ritual, forced himself to slide on the blade, forcing himself out of the sword's grip, then bent over the chalice, which greedily received a cascade of blood.
Before collapsing, he infused whatever Kilith he had left into the sceptre and poured all his energy into the purplish crystal, which immediately pulsated.
A cloud of blackish dust appeared from the bishop's corpse as he finally dropped to the ground, and also from that of the henchman.
But, most surprisingly, the wave of dark energy also emanated from Aleone's body, who saw her skin turn dark in some places, and a black liquid poured from her right eye. But instead of falling to the ground, the liquid joined the black dust and fused with it, the result now forming a slimy mass that levitated above the chalice.
Then the red blood of the deceased bishop raised itself from the contenant and mingled with the blackish mass, creating a viscous, strange and seemingly horrifying Slime that twitchedand move as if there was a sort of living creature inside it.
From Yugo's point of view, it looked like an embryo. But, of what?... was the real question.
He feared the answer.
But as much as he wanted to get get out of this cursed place, he knew there nothing much left to do but deal with whatever would happen there.
Ignoring the sudden and torturing pain that afflicted her, Aleone rose to her feet and, in a fit of rage, threw herself at the corpse of the old fanatic, hammering it with her knife.
"You! You demon! ARRRRGGGGGHHHH!"
Yugo saw this and ran over to her, grabbing her by the arm, and clutching her with his feet.
From one of his pockets he pulled out a vial with bluish-coloured contents, which he forced down the lady's throat.
Immediately, the progression of black spots stopped - on her forearms and left thigh - and she collapsed, clearly unconscious.
However, the mass of blackish dust did not stop, this time emanating from other rooms and even from outside the cathedral.
Yugo grabbed hold of the young woman and pressed his wounded hand to his sword.
He incanted a barrier.
In the same second, an explosion sounded, and the blast of the deflagration swept through the entire ceremonial hall.
The building collapsed in an apocalyptic crash, letting the star cross fall right behind what was a few second ago the altar.
A blackish, gigantic figure rose up, letting out a mortifying scream.
The Negacion had been born again.