Chapter 2 The Meaning of That Name Part 2

It didn't take long, but sakura left the house, she was staying in a inn near by and was having a journey far away from the war so i told her what I was going to do, the next day we would meet at the temple's entrance, what was left of the day was somewhat calm, the old lady didn't ask me anything but instead talked about her life here, the time of her youth, her daughter and how she left after getting married, the story from that point on was a painful one so we ended the night at that point, after all, i knew that story way too well.

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-- How many times I told you? Stop that and put more effort into this! --

-- All those years and you still act like a kid, stop eating everything you find!--

-- Give me that, you don't deserve it --

-- He died John, i know it hurts, but you can't take his place --

-- How many kids did you fight with to end up like this?! You should have beaten them harder! --

-- your grades dropped again, you just don't study at all do you? --

-- how many girls you broke up with? Aren't you the womanizer here!? --

-- what would you do, if you had the fate of a whole world at the palm of your hand? --

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I woke up the next day with a headache, i couldn't make logic of all the things I heard on that dream, as all those things escaped from my head the more awake I got, by feeling the sweat on my body i knew it wasn't a pleasant one for sure.

I left the house after getting a piece of bread to eat, the old lady wanted to accompany me, but she had some work to do, i told her I would meet her before leaving the village so that she wouldn't feel sad about the sudden meeting and parting.

"... It looks bigger than I saw it"

Standing before the temple, i felt like a dwarf in a high elf filled plaza, the place had the same proportion I expected, but was twice the size I imagined, the entrance was 4 meters tall, something only a giant would have issues to pass through

"It's the smallest of the 6 Heroes' temples"

"Maybe, it's different when you see it from this side after all"

Sakura sighs at my words, different from the previous night, she was calm with all the situation, knowing my situation, she chose to watch over me while I stayed in this village, her intentions were unclear to me, i didn't know if she still hoped I would turn into the savior and save the world, if I would turn out to be a demon taking his place and planning to spread death all over, or if I was just some idiot who looks like him and say random stuff that looks somewhat true.

Without further ado, we entered the temple, many statues of the Holy Knight could be seen, as if making a path to whoever enters it, between one statue and another, an armed soldier stood with a silver sword in hand.

"Isn't security here kind of paranoid? I mean, sure the hero crystal and all, but still, no being can take crystal, just touching it is almost impossible"

"You could say that, but people can always take a box and put it under it to take it away, it was what they did with the White hero's crystal to use it as the cardinal's ship core"

Talking casually like that, i start to gather information naturally, sakura lived for over 1 thousand years in this world and saw the many differences from her era and now, making such casual talk have some weight in it, for 12 thousand years, the hero crystals that were created by the dead corpses of my past selves became the almost unlimited Mana generators with wide knowledge trapped inside of them, knowing that, my past selves were the only ones able to obtain said knowledge thanks to the fact that we used to be one spirit and one soul, knowing the church has one of them is bad news, but having said knowledge is good.

"But are you really sure you want to pray? I mean, there are other hero crystals out there, with heroes of legend who had greater achievements"

She asked me casually as if to make me question it, to the world, you can only pray to a single hero and be granted only one "blessing", in reality, the people who do that just gain some Mana from the crystal, it's useless to do the same thing to the others since the effect is the same, but it's different with myself.

"Oh well, i always wanted to be a swordman, who knows, maybe his blessing will grant me that?"

I casually said it before stopping before the pedestal, the crystal the size of my fist was glowing clear green, inside of the crystal was my very face, but his skin was far whiter, almost pale, his eyes had a green glow as he stared at me back, i could hear the whispers coming from the crystal, as if trying to tell me something

-- ... Hate... Why... --

I already could tell what it meant, the message to be sent, yet I still got on my knees and started to pray, the moment I closed my eyes, all soldiers took they're weapons and pointed at me and sakura, surprised, sakura took her bow and pointed her arrows at them

"What is the meaning of this?!"

"Surrender now heretic, the apostle wants to take you alive!"

Of course, i knew it was coming, i stood up and looked at the soldiers, they all had extremely thick armour, things that would render a normal person immobile for sure, but the movement they did was sharp and accurate, they were extremely well trained soldiers, with equipment specially made to make arrows useless, sakura had normal arrows with her, something that would be useless against them.

"Tsk!"

Seeing that, she put away her bow and took her greatsword, a good choice if it wasn't for how she lacked space to move and fight there, as skilled and powerful she was, if she was to protect me, it would be a almost impossible battle.

"Who will be the first.."

"That's enough, i will go with you guys"

To her surprise, i surrendered to them with a awkward smile, walking past her when she grabs my hand

"Wait! If you go with them, they will kill you!"

"I know, you should know what I am by now, and what "that name" means to me, so don't worry"

I smile at her honestly again before I was surrounded by the soldiers and took away, by the corner of my eye, i looked back to the altar where she stood, and the figure of the hero crystal was already gone.