Trouble With The Church XIV

It was nothing dramatic at first. The light poured into the chalice and the cardinal maintained his pose for a minute. Kies considered shooting him before he could do what it was that he was trying to do but he didn't have the magic to get him. His weaker spells would get shot down by the priests and he didn't have enough magic to cast any of his powerful ones. Kies reached for the moonstone again but this time, he didn't stop himself.

The situation called for it. He couldn't let the cardinal finish what he was doing. Kies needed to stop him while he still could. He opened the pouch and placed his hand on the moonstone and felt a surge of power rush into his body. After absorbing enough, Kies zipped it and raised his arms. "Winds, heed my call and serve my will!"

The priests all turned their attention back to Kies and saw that he was doing something. They were unsure of what to do since their cardinal told them not to do anything. The confusion gave Kies enough time to finish saying the spell. "Take my foes before me and trap them in the endless winds."

A small rift appeared above the cardinal. It was too small to be seen and the priests looked around, confused about what spell Kies just cast. But they very quickly found out when one of them spotted something odd swirling in the sky. It took them a moment to figure out what it was and began panicking. But by then, the vortex had already grown to the point where they couldn't stop it.

The vortex began to drag in the priests close to it. "Cardinal! Please help us!" They begged for the cardinal to save them, but unfortunately for them, the old man still had his arms held up and his eyes closed, oblivious to what was happening.

One by one, the priests all began to get picked off their feet and taken into the vortex. The only ones that weren't affected by it were Kies and the cardinal for some reason. He didn't know what was keeping the cardinal from getting swept off his feet alongside the priests and it was concerning him.

How was he doing that? Did he really have some sort of divine protection from the Gods? Kies stared at the cardinal and looked around for what might be protecting him from his vortex. There was a thin layer of light surrounding him. Kies squinted his Kies and saw that it was coming from the chalice in his hands.

The chalice was protecting him from his winds. In a sense, that relic was really a blessing from God and Kies needed to get rid of it if he wanted to take down the cardinal. For the time being, Kies was out of magic and he didn't want to take any more from the moonstone. He could only watch and hope that his vortex takes out a good number of them so that he wouldn't have to deal with as many enemies afterward.

Kies kept his eye on the cardinal who was still frozen in his stance. He wasn't sure when he would finish casting the spell but he was ready for it. At that moment, the cardinal spread his arms to either side of him and the chalice began floating up into the air above him. The skies opened up and a ball of light descended from the clouds and onto the cardinal.

The moment they met, a bright flash of light blinded Kies and everyone else in the area. When he opened his eyes again, everything was white.

"Behold, my power!" a voice resonated. When the light died down, Kies saw a being clad in full armor with three pairs of wings standing in front of him. The vortex was gone and all around, light shined on the bodies of those who got sucked into it. Within seconds, they pushed themselves off the ground and turned to worship the descended angel.

"It's time for you to pay for your sins," the angel's voice echoed as he spoke.

Kies didn't need anyone to tell him that he was screwed. The air itself was shaking in the presence of the angel's power and Kies could feel the winds get nervous. They didn't dare fly anywhere close to the six-winged being.

Kies couldn't afford to be stingy anymore. He was going to die if he didn't do anything. He reached for his pouch but something flashed down from the sky and pierced his arm, preventing him from moving it. Kies turned his head and looked at what hit him and saw a long sword made of light holding his arm to the ground.

He could feel the magic resonating out of the sword, burning his body. His chest screeched in pain and panic swelled in him. The light was reaching his core and was harming it.

Kies tried to pull the sword out with his other hand, but when he tried his hand went through the sword. He tried again and the same thing happened. He couldn't get a hold of it. The light continued to run up his arm and flood his chest and it was getting dangerously close to his core. He could feel the pain increasing rapidly as the light made its way through his body.

Kies didn't have time. "D*mn it!" He reached for the pouch instead but found that a second sword had impaled his other arm as well, leaving him unable to move either of them.

"Accept your punishment from the heavens." Kies turned and looked at the cardinal who was raising his hands again. The chalice gently floated back down into his hands and he began chanting something. Without a doubt, the cardinal was getting ready to finish him off. From the looks of it, he still had a couple of seconds at most. Kies tugged his arms, trying his best to break free. He didn't care if he ripped them off or not at this point. If he couldn't budge from here, then he was dead.

Kies struggled with all his might but couldn't rip his arms free. He looked back at the cardinal and saw that the chalice was shining extremely brightly and was filled to the brim with light. He was almost done with the spell. But it didn't even matter if he finished the spell or not, if Kies couldn't get the swords out right now, the light would overwhelm his core and shatter it. He could feel the pain spiking quickly.

"Farewell."

The cardinal finished chanting his spell and tipped towards the ground. Light poured out of it and streamed towards Kies. There was no more time. This was his end.

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