Inside The Cannatean Church
Before entering the Church, the healer started to walk up to each one of them to heal their wounds.
What difference Vidan observed in the timid man's magic and Derik's magic earlier was the timid man's healing glow was far more radiant, which Vidan assumed was more potent.
His hypothesis only got firmer when he saw him heal Darius' injured shoulder within a minute.
Vidan was still not sure how the whole magic thing worked. He had tried delving into his memories but magic-related information was too complicated and too jumbled up.
So he decided to check it at a later time along with other important information.
The last was the starry girl to get healed, the healer took his time, but for some reason even after he was done healing, her face still looked pale, and her body was exhausted.
"Why isn't her recovery like the others." Vidan walked behind the healer and asked him.
The healer almost jumped up scared "…My P-Princeee…she has depleted her reserves." He spoke, but when he saw the prince had still a puzzled expression he continued "My Prince. It would take her a few days to get back to normal."
Vidan said with a thoughtful tone "But don't you have some of those magic portions."
Everyone was a little surprised by Prince's answer. It was not every day the Prince was being Kind.
"My Prince…We have but it is only for your use…It's the protocol."
Vidan cried tears of sorrow inwardly, what was he gonna do with maintaining his magic reserve when he was magicless.
"Give it to me then." Vidan outstretched his arm.
The healer nodded and immediately untied the small pouch hanging on his side. He then like a magician put his hand inside the small pouch and took out a mid-sized flask with blue liquid in it.
Seeing him pull out that flask Vidan's first thought was to pounce at him and steal that magical pouch, but he reminded himself he was a prince.
'Old habits don't die fast.'
Vidan then took the flask from the healer, and after curiously looking at the blue liquid for a moment, gave it to the starry girl, "Take this." The timid healer tried interrupting but she stopped him with a narrowed eye look and spoke firmly "It is mine and I can distribute it as I wish."
He was not so ungrateful a person as to first drag them in his mess and then not even give them some portions, and secondly, he didn't wanted his team's long-range magician to be exhausted if in case they were attacked again.
Everyone had looks of disbelief on their faces seeing the Prince being so generous.
The starry girl with her glassy eyes looked straight into Vidan's eyes for a moment or two, and then with a bow accepted the portion.
'Chug-Chug-' Vidan cheered inwardly seeing her hold the portion, and as if she had heard him she drank the whole liquid in a go.
'Yayaya' Vidan smiled stupidly looking at her.
"Tchh" she clicked her tongue looking at Vidan who was at the moment looked like he had some perverted ideas in his head. And her facial irk appeared back on her face just as earlier.
'I have to watch my back for icicles now' Vidan sighed making a mental note.
Within seconds after taking the portion the starry girl regained her facial color, and seemed like she had regained her strength.
Once all the healing was done Vidan asked for their names, everyone was a little hesitant at first but eventually stepped forward one by one.
"My Prince. Darius Ironstand" the axed brawler stepped forward with pride.
Vidan was a little surprised to know that he was blood-related to Derik. On looking closer he could see the two shared similar features like a wide forehead and fat flat nose.
Darius was followed by the starry girl, "Miya Withlock." she spoke rapidly and stepped back.
Next the young red-haired boy stepped forward and spoke with a straight back "Horatio."
Vidan waited for him to say his last name but there was none, Vidan checked his memory and found out that anyone who either fell below the poverty line or was an orphan weren't allowed to have last names.
Until they acquired a title that was allotted by a King or a Queen themselves.
At last the timid-looking man stepped forward with shaky legs, it seemed like they were made from jelly "My Prince…Chi-Chitrak Withlock. The Council healer…"
Vidan was surprised Chitrak and Miya were blood-related. Going through his memories Vidan realized Council healer meant he was among the best healer in the Kingdom.
'The Queen' Vidan sighed inwardly, Chitrak being one of the best healers should have been in war assisting them rather than be with him.
Vidan searched his memories but couldn't find anything about these three, not even about Chitrak. He could see their faces here and there in his memories but nothing concrete about these four.
Vidan pushed the matters aside and looked at the four-storey Church infront of him, he had more pressing matters at the moment.
Before entering the Church building. Vidan ran a quick search to find more about the Cannetian Church, and had found almost nothing. The only information the Prince had was that the Church was something significant. That is all he knew.
'Let's gather some information then.' Vidan thought to himself even this ill-fated situation, could be used as an opportunity to find anything something about the Church.
_____
The Knight guided them to the visitor's hall, which was the corner most building in the premises.
From there on a robed man approached them and gestured them to follow as he walked ahead. The five of them followed, and Vidan could not help but notice the crest at the back of their robe, though it was impossible to miss it as it almost covered the whole back side of the robe.
The Crest was an omnious-looking gate bloody swords making a cross in front of the gate.
'The word Church in this world is used in different reference than his world' Vidan was sure looking at the Crest.
Finally, after walking for a while they reached the building, and all four covered their eyes to protect the eyes against the brightness of the place.
The place was way too bright.
Vidan had thought that they would be put in some shady building but the building alone was more extravagant than the whole Royal Castle itself.
The walls of the place were shinning white. Whereas the ground was made up of glass-like transparent material.
What made it even more eye-catching was that beneath the glass floor a golden-coloured liquid continuously flowed, and only god knows from where and to where.
A large chandelier was overhead which illuminated, the whole place giving the whole place a bright golden hue.
The walls on their left and right were decorated with human-sized framed pictures of different bishops and archbishop, with at least a dozen on both sides of the walls.
The most extravagant part was the gold statue towards the end of the room. It was almost 15 feet tall and had a glass wall behind it. The statue was sculpted so well that Vidan could swear he felt its threatening eyes looming over them.
On inquiring with the robed man he came to know it was of the Pope's.
Beside the Pope's statues were smaller statues of the four cardinals. They stood with folded arms. Among the four three were male figures while one was female.
'The Pope, or whoever got them made loves gold or at least the color gold.' Vidan concluded seeing the whole display.
He could not even imagine how much resources the Church would have spent in their main building in the Capital if they had decorated this one so lavishly.
Vidan was lost at the sight of golden statues when suddenly a three-headed monster-like dog appeared behind the Pope's statue inside the glass wall and started smashing its head in the glass.
"BANG !"
"BANG !"
"BANG !" The whole building shook at the impact, it was a huge animal almost double the size of the statue and it certainly looked mad.
Vidan and his party took several steps back, it looked horrendous, a creature straight from the doors of hell.
"Hahaha," the robed man laughed, "Our ArcBishop Karani Sein caught this one many years back." He spoke proudly with his chest out.
Vidan looked at the creature one last time and moved away, even the sight of this creature looked like it could cause some serious brain damage.
Vidan asked the robed man many questions in many different ways, even throwing some basic questions prior to a serious one but he would very cleverly dodge them and hardly gave out anything useful.
Vidan desperately wanted to search other parts of this building but he had no intention to offend or cross the ArcBishop in any way or form.
Once they were done, Vidan asked the robed man, to guide them to the roof. He could at least see what happened in the battle.
The robbed man nodded and led them to an unnaturally dark stairway. He then manifested a staff and gently patted the ground with it.
Suddenly a small white light appeared on the ground.
He patted the light on the ground with his staff in a similar manner, and this time the light broke into six equally small parts and like a fish swam beneath each one of them, illuminating the area beneath each one of them.
Vidan on his way up tried dodging the light by moving erratically just out of amusement but he couldn't lose it.
The roof of the building was as expected huge with white marble covering it's floor.
Vidan looked towards the open field where the battle was supposed to have happened.
Both the armies, Sunspire in black and Drakmoor in red armors stood a short distance apart facing each other. Even among so many soldiers, Vidan could easily spot Derik who stood taller than every other warrior there.
In the empty space in the middle, the Kings and the Queen from both Kingdom were having a conversation. Alongside them stood the flags of both nation making a cross. This as per the information in his head meant truce.
For a while Vidan observed them, but he eventually got bored and moved to the other side of the roof facing the Kingdom.
There was not a single soul on the roads, and the Kingdom looked peaceful. The Castle was over the high cliff and behind it stood the great Aphoria mountain, it looked like the painting of a child with hills, a house, and a smiley sun.
Vidan was thankful there was the least amount of damage done to the Kingdom and its civilians. Though initially he had come here to witness a large-scale magic battle his near-death experience earlier had knocked him back to his senses.
He had realized that this world was as real as his previous one, maybe more and each of his actions came with a consequence.
Once he had admired enough of the city's rural rustic beauty, he shifted his gaze toward the other connected buildings within the church premises.
Vidan looked around and was surprised to find just blurry lines and images. It seemed like a child after making a pencil drawing had rubbed it messily.
He squeezed his eyes to look through the lines but nothing it was all the same.
'First the whole restricted zones. Then restricting us just to a hall and roof. The darkened stairs, and this concealment barrier. Such secrecy' Vidan caressed his chin. He was now even more wary of this institution.
He was still lost in his thoughts when he heard a loud "BOOM" just nearby.
He looked around and spotted a single-story house close by was obliterated to the ground.
Through the settling dust appeared a beetle-like monster almost the size of a car. It had a black metallic luster to it, and two large fatal-looking horns.
"Terrifying" Vidan whispered under his breath. Just a few seconds apart a small girl jumped out from the rubble.
On looking closer Vidan could tell that she was the same girl he had scared earlier when he had woken up. Vidan looked into his memories and found out that the girl was the prince's 10-year-old younger sister 'Pearl'.
'Shouldn't we aid her ?' Vidan thought worried and looked at his attendants. Contrary to his worries others looked at ease, Darius even looked amused at the sight.
Vidan looked at the girl, this time more keenly and he could see Pearl had a very confident stance, and she had a cynical smile on her face.