No Church in The Wild

Saint-Domingue, Cayes-Jacmel

Fort Quintus

Within Atem's Reality Marble- Ipet-isut Ma'at: The Most Selected of Temples of Ma'at

October 17, 1798

From myths and legends, they are born. The essence of the world and beyond is what comprises the supernatural core of them, thus lending form to these existences, the gods. For some gods however, the forms and nature of their myths becomes a burden, and they rebel against them in order to manifest in the world as Heretic Gods, and thereby bringing disaster with them.

These Heretic Gods are beings of disaster with no regards for human life, something that can be seen simply from the destruction they bring just by manifesting. Some bring floods, others bring earthquakes, and some can even bring about storms of fire. Regardless of their roles in myths or their moral alignments, Heretic Gods are beings that are far above the reach of the vast majority of mortals, supernatural or otherwise.

That does not, however, mean that they are invincible. Once in a blue moon, there will be a mortal who comes face to face with a Heretic God, and not only do they manage to survive the encounter, but they will also triumph in slaying them, thereby becoming a Campione, a Devil King. However, existences such as Campiones are rare, and those mortals willing to look at a Heretic God, let alone face them in battle and win, are even rarer. Which is why Baphomet finds the idea of a mere child willing to face him insulting.

"Tell me child, what madness, or perhaps arrogance, possesses you to face a God?" asks the Heretic God as his army of divine beasts snarl and roar at the 15 meter tall combat avatar of Atem along with the fully grown and massive forms of Bastet and Sekhmet.

"What is a God to a non-believer?" rebutes Atem with a tilt of his head as a khopesh and flail form within the hands of his combat avatar.

"A corpse." answers Baphomet with a snarl. "Tear him apart." he orders with a snarl, causing the divine beasts to release one final roar that shakes the desert floor as they charge towards Atem.

As the army of beasts charge at Atem, Bastet and Sekhmet roar towards them in retaliation while dark blue magical energy leaks from their bodies to form an army of their clones.

With the army of sphinxes at his back, Atem launches himself at the incoming beasts with a cold glare in his eyes.

Arriving a few feet away from the first beast, a chimera spanning many meters, Atem slashes his weapon through its neck, removing it and quickly steps to the right to evade another beast's strike before smashing his flail on a dragon's head, completely destroying it before the dragon can breathe out its fire. Just as Atem makes to decapitate another divine beast, three pairs of hands grab his combat avatar from behind and throw it off its feet.

Recovering quickly, Atem manages to land on his feet before sliding backwards with the momentum of the throw. Looking up, Atem sees eight knightly golems as big as his avatar slowly surrounding him.

"Come face your destruction you worthless dolls." says Atem as he brandishes his weapons.

Without wasting another second, the golems charge at Atem. Stepping into the first knight's guard, Atem slashes his weapon through its neck, removing it. He quickly steps to the right to evade golem number two's strike and walks into knight number three's guard. Grabbing three by the neck with the hook of his khopesh, Atem positions it to his left just in time to get slashed at the elbow by two and lose his arm. Not wasting a moment, he maneuvers around three and slashes two from the shoulder to its waist.

Moving past its crumbling corpse, Atem brings his khopesh up just in time to redirect four's sword into five's chest before destroying four with a smash of his flail. Rolling forward to avoid six's slash at his back, Atem uses the momentum from the roll to smash his flail through golem number seven's torso, reducing it to crumbling rocks.

Without missing a beat, Atem turns and redirects six's sword away from him, leaving it open to a stab through its head. As the golem struggles to maneuver itself, Atem throws it away from him where the remaining golems begin to recover.

"Ha-Di!" chants Atem, causing an explosion to engulf the golems and reduces them to pebbles and ashes.

As he watches the ashes fall to the sand, Atem turns to face Baphomet's army, only to see it be forced onto the defensive as Bastet, Sekhmet, and their clones rain hell upon them with wind, fire, and ferocious physical attacks that seem to always slay a beast whenever they connect. Looking behind the army of divine beasts, Atem finds Baphomet watching the proceedings with a frown on his face.

Turning his flail into a spear, Atem hurls the weapon over the clashing divine beasts and towards Baphomet. As the weapon comes close to piercing his torso, the Heretic God manages to tilt his body just in time for the weapon to only graze his chest. While turning back to face Atem however, a shadow appears over Baphomet allowing him to notice Atem plummeting towards him with his combat avatar nowhere to be seen.

"Khefa!" shouts Atem, summoning a massive golden fist that smashes into Baphomet, catapulting him to the ground where his landing creates a crater.

"Se-kebeb!" chants Atem as he smashes his knee onto Baphomet's chest, causing the Heretic's God body to become encased in ice. Without wasting a second Atem summons a golden spear and attempts to stab Baphomet through the head, only for the Heretic God to easily shatter the ice encasing him before catching the spear and using it to throw Atem off of him.

Landing with a roll, Atem easily returns to his feet just as Baphomet follows suit.

"Not bad for a mortal. Perhaps I was too hasty in dismissing you as a mere child." comments Baphomet as he creates more golems and divine beasts to face Atem. "Show your piety towards me and you shall be favored over all mortals. All you need to do is kneel." he says as he extends a hand towards Atem.

"Is the pious loved by the gods because it is pious, or is it pious because it is loved by the gods?" asks Atem as he dismisses the golden spear made of magical energy before a gold-glowing energy ripples through the empty air like water, forming a small golden portal over Atem's hand.

"Why does that matter?" asks Baphomet with a frown.

"If holiness is an independent quality that the gods love just as we mortals do, there is no need for the gods for we would still have holiness without them." answers Atem as a lance like weapon emerges from the golden portal and he grasps it. "If, however, holiness is whatever the gods love, then holiness is arbitrary. It could change at any time, and does not have any universal standard we can measure it against, thereby making it moot for one to strive towards piety." says Atem while pulling out a spear from the golden portal.

With his peace spoken, Atem lunges towards his enemy with a warcry, not to be outdone, the beasts rush past Baphomet with roars of their own and charge towards him. The first beast to reach him is a wolf that dies from a spear thrust to the heart, the second is a chimera that loses its head, the third is a manticore that dies due to having its stomach split open, and like this it goes on until Atem begins to lose track of how many beasts have been slain and how many golems have been reduced to rubble due to his spear canceling out the magic controlling them.

As Atem slaughters his way through Baphomet's army of golems and beasts, the commotion caused by his battle along with Bastet and Sekhmet's battle causes the people, who had been peacefully sleeping off the madness caused by Baphomet's presence with the help of his reality marble, to awaken and look upon the momentous battle.

Unlike Bjarte who has seen and interacted with Atem personally, the majority of those working in the castle have only heard about him, the young eight year old boy that does well in the arena. However, watching him slaughter his way through the divine beasts and paint the desert sand red with their blood, the people find themselves admitting that the rumours are an insult to his true capabilities. Not only is he creating a mountain of corpses with the massive amount of divine beasts that he slays, but with every step he draws closer to what most have already figured out to be a Heretic God.

However, despite Atem's amazing combat prowess and his progress in approaching Baphomet, those trained in combat can tell that he is slowly starting to fail. His dodges are slower, his slashes and stabs are becoming more sloppy, and smoke can be seen coming out of his mouth due to his overuse of divine words. In addition, the number of wounds on his body are visibly increasing. Many of them begin to believe that at this rate Atem will die before reaching Baphomet, and if he does reach the Heretic God then he will be too exhausted and injured to slay it. The thought of Baphomet winning causes them to despair and they dejectedly kneel on the sand while internally begging Atem to win.

Sidestepping a slash, Atem grabs his attacker by the arm and sends it flying into the mouth of a dragon before using the spear to slash open the throat of a griffin. By now, Atem is no longer thinking, just reacting using the most optimal and efficient moves. Despite this however he is very much aware of the precarious nature of his situation. He knows that he is slowly being pushed back and that his injuries are increasing.

Even now as he dodges a venomous snake he can feel the pain of his broken ribs along with the sting of the cuts and gashes on his body. Worse yet he knows that he has around one minute left before he can no longer keep his reality marble active and that any use of divine words will make him unable to speak for the duration of the day. As such he knows that he needs to kill Baphomet within the next minute, not only to keep his promise of beating him in five minutes, but also because his reality marble is the only thing keeping Baphomet's presence from completely breaking Adanna's mind.

With the situation being as it is, Atem knows that he can longer go on as he has. If he wants to win then he will need to use his most powerful spell next to his reality marble, a spell that he has refused to use recently because of the fact that it will result in him being unconscious afterwards. Not only that, but it will also require him to cancel his reality marble since using both at the same time will most likely burn his magic circuits to the point of them becoming useless. Considering the dire situation however, this is the only option that he has left if he wishes to kill Baphomet.

Killing one more beast and stepping away from the rest, Atem launches himself into the air where he spreads his arms wide open and withdraws his reality marble back into himself.

One second, that is how long it has been since Atem withdrew his reality marble back, and yet within that one second the minds of the people who had recovered within his reality marble have already been plunged into madness. Already Atem can see them begin to move in order to kill, maim, and cripple each other. In that one second, not only does he see the madness take hold of their minds, but he also falls into a state of hyperfocus where his senses allow him to hear the chaos caused by Baphomet's manifestation. A chaos that spans for at least 79 kilometers, a chaos that amplifies emotions like lust, rage, greed and envy to the utmost level to make beasts out of men, women, and children, a chaos that can only be countered by one name.

"MA'AT!" bellows out Atem with all of might while pouring out every ounce of power within himself and his soul into the divine word.

With the invocation of Order herself, a massive golden flame completely envelops Atem before exploding outwards and engulfing the entirety of Cayes-Jacmel and beyond, and as it sweeps through the city, the shore, and beyond, the flames completely burns the presence of chaos while also knocking the people unconscious and restoring their minds.

While the flames may have a positive effect on the people and the animals, it has a horrible affect on Baphomet and his army of beasts. As creatures born of Baphomet himself, a Heretic God of chaos, the divine beasts and golems are reduced to ashes by the flames of Ma'at. As a Heretic God of chaos, Baphomet himself suffers the worse fate as the flames cling to him in an attempt to erase his existence from the earth, Unfortunately however, there is not enough power in the spell to kill a being of Baphomet's caliber, causing him to suffer the torment of being burned alive while Atem himself begins to fall from the sky towards the Heretic God.

After his use of Ma'at, the only thing keeping Atem conscious is his sheer willpower to see Baphomet dead. As he begins to plummet to the ground where Baphomet is burning alive, Atem brandishes his spear and aims it at Baphomet's head where it easily pierces through his skull to impale the ground below, killing the Heretic God.

With the death of Baphomet confirmed Atem allows himself to fall within the realm of dreams with a smile on his face.

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AN: Here's the chapter, as usual tell me what you think and comment on your theories on what comes next for Atem, I love reading them.

Also, if you can please support me on my Pat re on which is (pat re on .com / servantambrosius), the next chapter is there. And follow my writing account on instagram at servant_ambrosius I will most be posting about my current original story.