When the exorcism bomb went off almost everyone in the room with Rennish fell to the floor or vanished. Rennish wasn't a lesser spirit and his body was tied to Ed, but even he felt the power in his soul being driven out of phase with the world. It was like standing too close to bomb and feeling all that air and movement knocking you around.
He panicked a little as well. The barman was the ghost of a tavern owner dating back to the original builders of the city and he only hung onto this world because he happened to have that much spiritual power accumulated as a ghost.
Rennish flitted around the room checking on spirits to make sure everyone who remained was okay before taking off through the wall. He was very panicked at this point. What had happened? Was Ed okay? Was Ed involved? Did Ed need his help?
Rennish had contemplated going with him to the church that day but divine power beings could get trapped in a church if they were not careful and Rennish really wanted to stay free. He really enjoyed this newfound life of traveling and hanging out with Ed. Even though Ed was a bit dull he was really growing on him. He had a simple honest face and he knew he would start to need him more as he got more comfortable.
His panic at the thought of losing him was as much guilt at leaving him behind and the fear of being sent back to work as a lesser spirit. Rennish wasn't nearly as selfless as Ed and he had his own greedy reasons to do what had been asked of him. If he failed or if something happened to Ed he knew Golliad would collect his spirit and lock him in a very small box for a few thousand millennia until the world no longer made sense to him.
With all the speed he could muster he started running through the walls and alleys across all three parts of Ganel.
Spirits were wailing and confused, and it sounded like hundreds of people crying at once. The humans were all standing outside, amazed at the sudden light from the chapel but the spirits were the worst. Thankfully the humans were unable to hear it. It was haunting and eerie to see all these humans pointing and smiling at the miracle but hear the cries of anguish from spirits suddenly thrown into disarray.
Wails and moans of spirits and beings who had lived peacefully in the city echoed as the spirits moaned the loss of friends they had made in the afterlife. Divines like Rennish were going from spirit to spirit trying to count who all was left. And the exorcisms power was still pushing on some people. An area near the exit, ghosts, and other lost souls were running out of the town as quickly as they could.
The power of the exorcism was slowly spreading like a fog. The first huge blast was bad enough but this was threatening to take everything with it for those who were weakened and had not been finished off in the first blast. It was like a volcano, the first blast destroyed as much as it could, and now the lava was rolling down the streets to finish off what the blast has not.
Rennish shoved through people and around spirits who were looking for any of their own. He had to make it to the chapel. Spirits are faster than normal humans but they are not able to fly, contrary to popular belief. They could float and float through but never soaring the sky like a bird.
Panic set in more as he ran and witnessed more of the streets, what if Ed was dead? What if the blast had exorcised him, I mean technically Ed is dead and resurrected, would that have affected him?
Rennish started to scream for Ed, The voices of the ghosts, spirits, and divines were all that Rennish could hear in the area of the town he was in. So many souls cried out. They were terrified that the humans had achieved such a weapon against them and to unleash it without reason. They always put sage on a doorway or holy water in a bowl first so that the spirits knew to leave before they came through and sanctified a house.
As he finally made it across Or'Ganel and Mi'Ganel he made it first to the gate reserved for carriages. Rennish had been running as hard as he could to move his divine form at the fastest he could achieve while still darting around humans. And as he turned the corner to head towards the chapel he almost fell flat on his face as he tried to avoid hitting the person standing at the entryway.
Ysennia was standing there in a flowing white gown. Normally she had the look of a warm loving brunette older sister. She was tall but not too tall. She had curly brown hair and a face that was thin but with rounded features and a body shape that was filled out but not oversized.
This time though Ysennia was full of righteous anger. She was tall, like an amazon. Her face was the same but nothing else was. She had the physique of a warrior woman who trained daily in the arts of death. Her clothes were all replaced by flame and she held some kind of scepter weapon in her hand.
And as Rennish tried to stop himself, clawing and kicking at the sidewalk, he saw her come walking towards him.
"Rennish you damn fool! Why can't you keep him out of trouble! You are supposed to be helping him instead of yourself. You lazy, self-absorbed, womanizing awful spirit!" she screamed at him pointing a finger and walking towards him. She was bringing the scepter up over her head like she intended to break it on his head.
She never gave him the chance to respond. He was was stammering at the full might and rage of the head goddess. She had earned that position entirely on her own right through eons of plotting, fighting, and manipulations. She was a sincere honest goddess but she wasn't about to let the lesser spirit of a bard ruin everything she had planned.
Rennish clawed at the ground to get away from her. He twisted around and fought against the slick cobblestones to stand up and run away. Fear had overtaken his ability to reason. Normally he would have done his best to be charming and slither his way out of any bad situation like a snake. He only had that primal fear to survive right now.
"Goddess, I am sorry, I am sorry, I am sorry!" he repeated as he tried to get away.
Ysennia brought the scepter down and barely missed his head as he skittered off like a roach.
"YOU WILL FIX THIS!" she screamed and took two godly steps before bringing the scepter down again missing his only by the slightest margin.
Rennish finally got his feet under him and darted across the street. He looked behind him but Ysennia was gone. Just as he thought he could breathe a sigh of relief he felt the hand of an angry god against this throat.
"You have failed me. First, you failed to bring art and song to this world. Instead, you brought wine and food wherever you could!" She grabbed him and shoved him against the tree. The world was dark around her because her anger was burning like a bright white light bulb. No other light could get past it.
"He is sitting in the head priests office right now. The power that he just unleashed is so strong that even I have a hard time standing against it. He may have made the chapel impossible for us to enter for a very long time. And you should have been there to stop this!"
"You have shown him nothing! He doesn't know the most basic things about himself or his power." she punched him once in the gut.
"You came to me begging for a chance to get reincarnated and I made this deal with you. Instead of ensuring that Ed moves forward instead of stays the same you have kept the information from him that he needs most." She kicked him across the ground and he slammed into a tree.
"You thought ONLY of your selfish needs... You are worthless... Gutless... " and she trailed off as she looked down on the spirit as he clenched his stomach. He was protecting himself and trying to hold onto himself while she let out her rage.
"I am sorry, so sorry, so sorry.." Rennish said through gritted teeth. No groveling was working here, he needed to be genuinely sorry. "I thought if he found it out on his own he would be better... and I am an artist, not a teacher!"
"You are a teacher now and you will not fail me again Rennish or I will erase your soul or send you to clean out the pits of despair in Hadres personal pleasure pits." she grabbed him by the collar and dragged him up to eye level with him.
Rennish looked at her in fear. He had never seen this side of her before. Ysennia only released her godly anger when it was most needed. She was technically the goddess of creation and destruction for this world. Rennish was picked by her to help foster the creation of arts and culture. His failure reflected on her and this was his chance to redeem himself.
But she was also the Goddess of destruction. When a volcano destroyed a town or a country she was the one behind it. When who civilizations died she rode through the town on a skeletal pony passing plagues of death behind her. She was to be feared as much as respected. She was a loving soul and she loved to create and destroy. Her playing with living souls was as much in awe of the creations as in her joy at watching them end. She was fascinated with the idea that some things had only a short span of life.
"You will find him in that chapel. You will withstand the pain of being exorcised even though you can't be removed because you are tied to Ed's soul. You will help him get out and you will teach him correctly. Get him out of this damned city and stop the destruction. Take him anywhere but here. The spirits are going to want blood for this attack from the humans." she said throwing him to the ground. He bounced and coughed as he stood up. Even for a spirit, this assault from her was painful
"Yes, goddess. You are right as always and I was selfish and wrong." he didn't fully believe that but he WAS willing to try and lie his way out of this now.
"I will get him out and train him what he needs to grow." he coughed and clutched his shirt in his hands. That he did mean. He was going to get him out. He had to stop Ed's demise because he already knew what that meant for him.
"Good. Take him out of there. I hoped to talk to him and then when I saw him go in with the priest I knew you had not told him about the house of the gods or he would have gone there. No, you had to just muck it all up." She stood to smooth out the wrinkles in her flaming clothing. She was calming down and going to her more normal look. She shrunk a little here and there until she was her normal height and her clothes returned to the normal white cloth.
"That boy is important, not just to god but to me as well... His survival is a must. Otherwise, I would have sent his soul off to some backwater world or reincarnated him into a cow. I can't, there is a reason he is here, in this place at this time. And if we don't find out why the Lord God will come down and do you want him to see what has happened here?" She said putting a finger into his face.
"No, I don't." Rennish already knew the answer. This world was supposed to have flourished. Bring out loads of worshipers and empowering the divine. Instead, a mistake had been made, separating the divine and corporeal, separating the humans and nonhumans. This mistake has driven them apart at the seams and this fracture meant that the church was worshiped only in the one part of the world.. And new gods were moving in. Too much worship of false gods was a bad thing. Once a deity was thought into existence his powers grew as he got more people. Rennish wasn't sure this was what Ed was here to battle but he was certain that the fact that new Deities were growing her would anger and upset the lord and most likely be the reason he destroyed the whole thing.
Whole groups of spirits, people, and other beings would be simply snuffed out like they were unimportant. Like a cosmic reset button and those tied to the power of this world would stand no chance. Just because they had divine powers it didn't mean that they could themselves anywhere. Some spirts were tied to just one world.
Rennish bowed. "I will find him at once. And I will keep him quiet and get him out," he said before slinking off, in pain and slouched over.
Ysennia wiped her hands of the dirt from beating him on the sides of her skirt. "You better keep him alive. He is a beloved creation and must not die. If he dies Rennish, you will wish you had."