The Church of the Glorious Radiance

Walking quickly through the streets since the townsfolk gave them room because they looked like feral beasts, they arrived at the guild's entrance a little before night and entered. The place was nearly empty but there were still some adventurers and Linda behind her counter. When she saw them coming in covered in blood and a head in Jack's hands she panicked a little.

'Did somebody offend him again? What the hell happened?'

"We would love to validate this quest." Laena explained, getting the paper out of her bag and explaining the identity of the head's owner.

"R-right, let me give you your reward." The receptionist mumbled, quite perturbed by the fact that they had cleaned a bandit camp this fast and brought back a damned decapitated head.

"You won't need this to verify the veracity of our saying?" Jack asked while casually swinging around his "proof".

"N-no, we will be fine. I'll just trust you on this one. However, if there are bandits reports in the same region again I will have to send investigators and you may be severely punished for your lies." The receptionist explained while handing them a few golden coins.

"Oh, alright."

'Looks like I've been a little too paranoid or they are too lenient. Well, fine by me.' The immortal grunted in his head.

"Good night miss Linda !" Evelyn gently said, melting the receptionist heart and disturbing her even more as there was such a cute angel next to a bloodied monster.

"Good night you all."

The party waved at her before leaving and they walked toward their inn, Jack dumping his now useless "proof" in a dark corner of a street. Unsurprisingly, the city was way less safe during the night and since they took small alley they met some shady people. The immortal just wanted to reach his bed and was quite grumpy. As such, many new disappearances fueled the Phantom Reaper's rumors and he shocked the girls again.

'He killed those men like they were cockroaches... Well, those who dared to look at us with those disgusting eyes or tried to steal us deserved it but...' Laena was thinking while they finally reached their precious beds.

They also ate a cold dinner since the kitchen was closed this late but were still happy as they were back home again. Shivering, the girls reminded themselves that it was their turn to do the job next and they savored even more their current peace. Their dreams were filled by the visages twisted in horror they had seen but they steeled their resolves. Facing those nightmares, they mentally prepared themselves for their task and woke up exhausted but smiling.

Jack found them both energetic but having dark circles around the eyes and he simply laughed at them while eating his breakfast. They left early, refilling their stock of potions and repairing their clothes. Then, they went toward the west city gate, hoping to find a carriage to bring them around their next quest's location as it was at least three days of walk from where they were.

Apparently, a bunch of adventurers hunting goblins saw a light and around a dozen of shady people eating around it. Since there had been reports of attacks on the merchants in that region earlier, the Guild correlated the information and gave this quest after having gotten a budget from the local lord.

The news was well know around the merchants and the trio didn't find anyone insane enough to dare to go around this place but they still managed to hop on a farmer's wagon as he was passing by and would win them some time. Just before they left the city, a voice called the gentle driver saying :

"Please wait ! We would like to go with you, we have to go further down this road as well."

Turning around, Jack saw a young man in leather armor running toward them. Frowning, he wondered who was this guy and he nearly lost his self control when he saw the crest on the young man's pommel.

'An apprentice paladin... A damned follower of those gods...' He thought while his eyes slowly turned bright red. Evelyn noticed his changes and quickly tugged his brand new sleeve, waking him up from his blind rage. Sighing, he smiled and thanked the small girl. During this time, the young paladin had reached their driver and was begging to get on.

"Please sir, we can pay you !"

"Fine, fine. By the way, my name's Robert. When you say we, how many are with you? I can only take you and two of your lil' friends. I already have other adventurers with me and, ya see... My poor horse can't take more than this ya know. " The farmer grunted. He had already received a gold coin to drag those weird guys with him and he wasn't going to take another client for less than this.

"I only have two companions coming with me, it should be fine then. Oh and forgive my rudeness, I am Leon, a paladin of the Church of the Glorious Radiance." He was about to talk about his friends when he heard a weird noise coming from behind him. Turning around, he only saw an elf and a young girl worriedly looking at a man in black robe sitting in the wagon.

Jack had resisted his urge of jumping on the small paladin and let himself be consumed by his wrath by breaking his wounded left arm. That way, the pain focused his mind and he managed to grit his teethes.

'I swear as soon as we leave this god damned town I will erase him from the surface of Kaneoldor.'

Shrugging since he didn't see anything weird, Leon continued to talk with the farmer and generously paid him for the travel. Robert was nearly crying as he knew that with so much money he could stop working for at least one year and still have leverage. During this time, Jack had chugged a bottle of healing potion and cast a small spell on his bones to repair them.

Since his trip was settled, the paladin then climbed in the carriage and smiled at the adventurers staying there.

"I'm Leon, an apprentice paladin of the Church of the Glorious Radiance. Nice to meet you all !" He said, shaking everyone's hand. He felt something weird when he shook the old man's hand but just thought that it was his imagination. Jack, however, had clearly felt and understood it.

'This son of a dog has some divine mana inside of him ! It's only an ounce but it's enough to remind me those fuckers...' He howled in his mind before breaking his arm again. Yet, the pain didn't manage to calm him and the world around them slowly smelled like blood.

"I am Laena Brathadh, nice to meet you. Jack, you are being impolite. Introduce yourself will you." She said while panicking a little as she recognized the first signs of his wrath.

"*Hum* I am Jack, a mere servant of Lady Brathadh." He grunted through his teethes. Slowly breathing, he managed to get a hold of himself and repaired his arm again. Since he was sitting in front of the trio in the small wooden wagon, he noticed the weird movements the man was doing and just thought that the man's arm was itching.

"I am Evelyn, a servant of Lady Brathadh too." The small blond girl smiled, bringing one on Leon's lips too. Curious since it was her first encounter with a god's servant, the young apprentice magician studied the man in front of her. He was good looking with gentle traits, brown eyes and short red hairs. His stature was quite small as he made around 1.75 meter. However, you could feel that he had trained his body well as his musculature seemed really dense.

After a few minutes of pep talk and what felt like another eternity to Jack, a girl in white robe with long black hairs and a dwarf in heavy armor joined them. Since they were a bit late on their schedule the farmer accelerated quickly and left the six adventurers to their discussions.

"Hi, I'm Fyorn. As you can see, I'm a dwarf and am working with Leon. That's all for me."The burly and small dwarf with a huge ginger beard grunted. The huge war axe in his back gave of a dangerous impression and, watching him attentively, the immortal knew that this Fyorn was more than it seemed.

'He has the same gaze as a war veteran. Furthermore, his body look so well trained that I wouldn't be surprised to learn that he had been carved out of some stone. Damn, this is getting troublesome.' Jack thought as he studied the small warrior.

Turning around, he met Leon's female companion's gaze and was surprised to see scorn in it. Unconsciously, he replied to her aggressivity in kind and glared at her with his usual wolfish smile appearing. Shivering, the small woman introduced herself too:

"Hello, my name's Alikio. I am a high priestess of the Church of the Glorious Radiance. Nice to meet you all."

'A priestess... You are kidding me... How am I supposed to stay calm in this kind of situation?' Jack roared internally as he saw the girls saluting each other. When it came to him he nearly spitted his words, fighting against the idea of murdering those people because the road was still quite crowded.

What surprised him was that the black haired girl didn't move her gaze from him at all as she seemed to be quite wary. More precisely, she was glaring at the wounded left hand that Jack was hiding from the other's view as he was sticking to a wagon's corner with his left flank.

"To break the ice between us, let's talk about our works !" Leon enthusiastically proposed. A grunt came from his companions and Jack but his two students seemed quite happy to discuss with the paladin.

Laena was happy to finally have a social interaction with somebody sane while Evelyn was just curious about those knights in shining armor from the legends. However, she hadn't forgotten what her teacher had explained to them and she stood alert, ready to cast a spell in case of trouble.

"Well, since nobody start I'll do it. As you know I work for the Church and we are currently going to -"

"Leon, our mission isn't something that you should tell to everybody. Especially adventurers." Alikio interrupted his joyful explanation with a hint of despise. To her, those who worked for the Guild were even worse than mercenaries as they worked only for money and didn't have a hint of the professionalism the others had.

"O-okay... And what are you doing as adventurers girls? Especially you Evelyn, aren't you a bit too young to take such risks?" The paladin inquired with worry.

"I am strong enough to take care of myself you know." The young girl replied, irritated to be seen as her former powerless self.

"Indeed, she isn't in my party for nothing. We are currently going toward the west to clear a bandit's camp since they trouble the commerce." Laena stated, protecting her friend.

"Bandits? Isn't that too dangerous?" Leon started before seeing the glare coming from the three adventurers in front of him. "No, I mean... I see that only you have a weapon miss Laena."

Making a dagger appear from a belt around her robe, Evelyn showed him that she was armed and Jack simply snorted.

"I don't need any weapon to take care of such scums."

"Ah, you are a martial artist Jack?" The paladin asked as he thought that those tight looking clothes would trouble the man in a fight.

"Indeed."

'A martial artist? You are kidding me?' Fyorn thought as he was still gingerly watching the man in black suit. 'I better stay alert, my instinct tells me nothing good coming from this guy.'

Sensing that he was currently tightly watched by the priestess and this tough looking warrior, Jack internally sighed as he knew that he would have trouble to kill them by surprise. 'And they seems dangerous... Well, let's wait for an occasion to show up. I don't know if I would be able to protect the girls and fight with those guys in my current state.'

"Oh, alright. As you can see, I'm a swordsman and I like to be light." Leon replied while smiling. Seeing that nobody continued the conversation, he tried to get his companions talk a little.

"Come on Alikio, Fyorn, talk about yourselves too !"

"Fine. As a priestess, I wield the power of Light granted to me by Svet, the God of Radiance." She explained while getting a small wand made of a translucid yellowish material out of her backpack.

"And I wield my axe." The dwarf grunted.

Soon, an uncomfortable silence took place during their trip. Jack was focusing on staying calm, grinding his teethes under the watchful gaze of his journey's companions. This continued until, a few hours later, the wagon was abruptly stopped and they all looked at the monstrosity which had jumped in front of their ride.