The Testing Begins

A few minutes had passed as Asher and the rest had been corralled to an area that the knights had set up.

"Grandma Tess!" Asher went up to Tess the moment he could.

"Be careful, you are injured." Tess said with great concern before checking Asher's body.

"Ssss~" Asher hissed in pain as Tess lifted his shirt, revealing the dark bruise underneath it. "Ugh!" And when she touched it, the boy couldn't help but groan in pain.

"A rib is broken." Tess said with reddened eye. 

"It's fine, I can handle it." Asher replied, knowing that his Grandmother would probably do something that won't be good in the current situation.

"We can ask the knights for help!" Tess stated firmly.

"We shouldn't right now." Asher shook his head. "Look at the others… There are many that are a lot more injured than me. And yet the knights don't seem seem to be doing much to help them either." He stated. 

Tess glanced around and found that it was correct. All that the knights had done was to gather them to one side, while they began their task. They didn't seem the slightest bit inclined on helping them at the moment.

"It's useless." One of the injured men spoke.

The man had lost a leg and was lying near Asher and Tess with his daughter. 

~cough~ Cough~

"Father, you should rest, don't get up." The man's daughter pleaded but the man seemed disinclined to do so.

"We need to accept it… These knights and mages won't help us." The man spoke. "Their duties do not apply when they are in the Crude Lands… We aren't the citizens of the Turin kingdom for them to care about us." He added with helplessness on his face.

Asher and Tess heard his words, knowing that they were correct. They knew very well that living in the Crude Lands came with a long set of disadvantaged which included not having the same rights as a normal citizen of the kingdom. 

As such, while the Crude Lands was technically within the limits of Turin Kingdom, they didn't consider its people as their own and only saw them as unwanted exiles and criminals, if not slaves.

While Tess and Asher were thinking about this, the knights seem to have finished their set up. 

An open tent was erected in the middle of the area, with the Immortals sitting about fifty meters from it. The mages were waiting at the tent though and had put the Heretic Detector on a table inside the tent.

"Start bringing them!" Mage Clor ordered.

"Yes!" The knights said before approaching the people.

They went to the very front of the group and stood there.

"Get up and get in line, it's time to weed out the heretics." The knights said in a harsh tone. "And don't even think of doing anything, the moment you do we'll consider you offenders." 

"Y…Y-yes." The people that were in the front replied feeling very anxious.

The knights were feeling rather scary to them and they didn't feel as safe as they should. 

"Just do as we tell you and things will be fine." One of the senior knights said and stomped his foot. "Now… move!" he ordered.

The people quickly got up and started lining up.

The number of survivors was roughly around a hundred but the knights seem to be gathering more people that were scattered a bit farther. After all, the camps in the Crude Land weren't all clustered in one place and were a bit spread out.

And while several of them might have been wiped out by the demons, that didn't mean that there wouldn't be survivors. 

The knights had orders to check everyone and as such they wouldn't dare to miss anyone. Thus bit by bit, more people started to add up to the group.

"Show your hand," Mage Clor asked, the woman that was first in line.

"Y-yes, Lord Mage." The woman said while trembling. "AH!" she let out a scream as he hand was cut.

~SLICK~

~drip~drip~drip~

Red blood seeped out of the wood and dripped onto the Glass orb under it. 

~shua~

The glass orb absorbed the blood before a fog appeared inside it. The woman who was being tested held her breath, as she watched the fog swirl. 

Second after second passed, and the woman's nervousness continued to rise. 

'Tidemother bless me…' the woman prayed.

There was no way she wanted to be a heretic after all as that would mean death for her and possibly her family.

~humm~

Thankfully, the fog didn't change color and simply faded away causing the woman to take a breath of relief.

"Next!" The Mage ordered. 

"Thank you Lord mage!" The woman said before quickly moving away, feeling grateful to the Tidemother.

The woman was escorted to another section where those that had been cleared were to be kept.

"Your hand," The mage said in a cold voice.

The next person to be brought in was a young boy that seemed to be no older than seven. He was quite scared as such and was looking back at the woman behind him.

"It'll be fine, James just do what Lord Mage asks you." The child's mother urged him.

"O-okay…" The child gulped before fearfully extending his hand. "AHH!!!!" The mage was quick to slash it as well, letting bright red blood spill.

"WAAAAAAA~" Of course, it was hard for the child to not cry and he wailed loudly. 

This irked the mage but he held in his temper for the time being as the fog started to swirl in the orb.

~shua~

The fog quickly disappeared after ten seconds, showing that the child was not a heretic.

"Next!" The Mage said, not wanting the crying child to be in front of him any longer.

"Go to auntie James, I'll be there soon." The woman said to her child and walked up to the table.

Asher and the rest watched all this, as the woman passed too.