Edited 09/06/23
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Alister, along with the enforcers arrived in front of his shop.
Although it was night, the light reflecting of the moon illuminated the entire place quite well. Making sure that there was enough visibility to navigate clearly.
The front door of his shop was wide open, there was some fresh dirt near the entrance, indicating that someone had been here not too long ago.
"Surround the place! Make sure no one escapes."
The squad leader ordered his men to block all escape routes before motioning for Alister to follow him inside.
Three enforcers along with the owner entered the shop, exercising caution, keeping their halberds resting on their back as they opted for a much smaller weapon instead, short-swords, so that could maneuver around properly within the confined space of the shop.
The shop had plunged into darkness, moonlight barely illuminating the place through the windows.
One of the enforcer raised his palm in front of him and started casting a spell.
"[Fire Magic: Ball Of Fire]"
A ball of fire of the size of a baseball formed in his palm, hovering slightly above his skin. The entire place was illuminated in an instant as the enforcers moved forward.
The entire place had clearly been ransacked. There was broken glass scattered across the floor, furniture damaged, and goods destroyed. Even the sewing machine had sustained considerable damage.
The squad leader turned towards Alister.
"Looks like you were speaking the truth, commoner."
"Someone did break into your house."
"Soldiers! Search the place!"
The squad leader motioned for his soldiers to clear out the house while he waited beside Alister.
"Any idea why they decided to rob you?"
"I make clothing for nobles, they must have thought that I have a lot of gold on me, fortunately I had already deposited all of my money in the Astral Bank."
Alister lied about depositing the gold coins as he didn't wanted to be exploited by the enforcers.
The soldiers were of course responsible for maintaining order however they were also a greedy bunch. And surely, after hearing that he had deposited all of his money in the bank, the gleam in the enforcer's eyes dimmed.
After that none of them spoke, instead opting to wait for the search to be concluded.
After a few minutes, the soldiers returned to the entrance and began their report.
"We didn't find anyone in the shop, the entire place has been ransacked and a lot of things seem to be missing."
"It's obvious, after the intruders didn't find any money, they decided to take what they could and destroyed the furniture."
"We found two sets of footprints near the broken furniture, going by the size of the footprints, both of them seem to be male."
Listening to the report, the squad leader frowned before ordering his men to gather outside.
"We will return to the garrison."
"Sir Quart would most likely organize a hunting squad to hunt down the thieves."
"We will increase the patrols around Business District."
The squad leader, followed by his squad left for the garrison, leaving Alister to deal with the mess within his shop.
Looking at the condition of his shop, Alister let out a tired sigh.
"This is going to be a long night…"
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Inside a deserted alley…
"That bastard! Where the fuck did all the money go!?"
"Could it be that he had deposited all of it in the bank? But we never saw him heading in that direction!"
"I am telling you, boss. That bastard must have hidden the money somewhere inside his shop."
"But even after searching the entire shop we couldn't find a single coin!"
"Argh! He must have some kind of hidden compartment or something that only he would know about."
"You might be right but there is nothing we can do now, the enforcers must be organizing a hunter squad in order to find us."
"We must escape the city as soon as possible!"
"You are right, boss!"
The two thieves that were responsible for destroying Alister's shop were currently hiding in a dark alley, far away from the garrison.
They had already prepared to escape the city today.
One of the them was able to get their hands on the sewer layout blueprints from the blackmarket.
Their escape route was the sewer lines that extended out of the city to a waste deposit.
"Alright, let's quickly remove the manhole cover and travel down."
Both of them quickly took out a crowbar and started trying to pry open the sewer lid.
Ting!
"Alright!"
The crowbar was securely placed at the bottom of the lid so that it could be used as a lever to unhinge it from the pavement.
While both of them were occupied with the sewer hole, none of them noticed a tall shadow walking into the alley.
No sound was heard as the shadow moved closer to them.
"Excuse me! Would you like to join the cult of our pagan god, [Skoulíki Theós]?"
The figure spoke in a strange, eery tone that send chills down their back. Both of them were startled, quickly jumping to their feet and turned around to face the figure.
Both of them took out small knives, hanging from their waists.
"W-Who are y-you!? Stay the fuck away from us!"
They threatened the figure as the boss motioned for his accomplice to quickly open the manhole.
The figure in-front of them was inhumanly tall, standing at a mind-blowing 8ft height, it was covered in a black robe which completely hide its body.
But that wasn't the strangest thing about him, after all, this world was filled with all kinds of strange beings.
The strangest thing about him, and probably the thing that scared the thieves the most, was the fact that it's body seemed to be continuously squirming around.
"[Skouliki Theos] is the one true god, he is the divine being that feasts on worlds, all realities are his nutrient and one day he would devour this reality too!"
"My brothers! Join us and offer yourself to god!"
"Only by devoting yourself to the one true god can you achieve true peace!"
The figure kept on rambling about how all the gods were mere impostors, and how its god was the one true creator.
It grew more and more loud as it continued to blabber about his god, causing the thieves to grow more and more restless.
"Fuck you! And your God! Now fuck out of here before I shank you with these knives!"
The thief warned the eery figure as he took a step back towards the manhole.
His accomplice had successfully removed the cover using the crowbar.
"Now, it obvious that both of you are unable to understand the true divinity of my lord."
"I excepted as much, after all, animals can't possibly comprehend something as advance as my lord."
"Well, animals do serve a purpose—as nutrients."
Saying so, the squirming of the figure intensified as its body parts started to bend into strange shapes.
The robe it wore was ripped apart, allowing the thieves to see its true self.
As soon as they laid their eyes upon the true appearance of the figure, their bodies froze in terror.
Their pupils dilated, muscles tightened-as their body entered fight-or-flight mode.
"D-Demon! Somebody save us!"
The thieves screamed at the top of their lungs, unfortunately for them, the entire alley was covered in a magic veil that blocked all sound from exiting.
Helpless, they stood still as they stared at the creature in front of them.
50 meters away from them stood an amalgamation of human bodies, ranging from, bodies of newborns to that of old men and women.
There was even the body of a pregnant women among the others.
It had many eyes, many faces, the many legs of the various bodies had somehow merged together to form the creature's legs while its arms had even more arms sprouting out of them, like branches of a tree.
The creature, in all sense, truly was a demon.
The various faces on the creature's body, all simultaneously looked at the thieves, a creepy smile edged onto them as multiple voices rang out at the same time.
"FffFOooDdd…"
Before either of the thieves could react, the creature swept one of his limbs towards them at supernatural speeds.
Its unholy arm or-arms, grabbed their throats tightly.
The skin on its arms started to melt and move towards the thieves.
"No! Leave me!"
"I don't want to die!!!"
The thieves thrashed around, trying to free themselves from the creature's grasp, only to fail miserably.
One of them slashed at the arm with his knife, only for his wrist to be grabbed by one of the many hands on its arm.
"Kehhee…!"
The melted skin started to pour into their orifices causing their bodies to inflate like a balloon while their skin turned gooey.
It wasn't long until the creature had assimilated the two thieves into its body.
"A pity they were non-believers…"
Step!
The creature turned around to look at the newcomer who had entered the alley.
Similar to how its had been wearing a robe, the newcomer was the same.
He was a 35-year old man with wrinkles all over his face, he slowly knelt down before the creature in front of him and spoke in a respectful tone.
"Lord Bishop, our faithful followers have gathered for the sermon."
The creature let out a satisfied hum as a robe, similar to the one he previously wore, materialised within his palm.
It wore the robe with relative ease despite its unholy size.
"Of course, Father Bifrot…"
"Glory to [Skouliki Theos]!"
The creature let out a creepy smile as he used his arm to remove the cover of the manhole, walking towards the hole he jumped inside.
Father Bifrot looked at the torn clothes on the floor before walking towards the open manhole, he waved his hand in the air as fire engulfed the pavement.
Within minutes, all evidence of anyone being in the alley was destroyed.
A second later a hand emerged from the open manhole, it grabbed onto the manhole cover and disappeared after resealing the sewer entrance.
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Inside the Manor Of Duke Myhill…
"Although you have suffered quite a loss, it pleases me to see that you remain unharmed, Alister."
Lady Maya had a small smile on her face as she looked at the kneeling figure in front of her.
In the morning, her information network had informed her about what had transpired last night.
The Firestone Clothing Shop had be ransacked by thieves who destroyed a lot of machines and costly materials within the shop.
Thankfully, her tailor was unharmed.
In her eyes, Alister was a hard working man who had a lot of skill, he was also a honest individual and didn't try to comb his words in honey when they conversed.
The qualities of his product along with his commitment and diligent nature made her decide to invite him as her vassal.
Soon, she would be leaving for the Mage Academy.
Her father had left the selection of the vassals to her, and she wanted to invite the young man kneeling in front of her.
Lady Maya adopted a serious look as she spoke in a low tone.
"Alister, I would like for you to accompany me to the Mage Academy as one of my vassals."
"If you accept, you will become my personal tailor, your products along with your shop, will be restored and sponsored by the [House of Myhill]."
"You will also have a chance to awaken your magic and become a mage."
"Although you will then become permanently affiliated to my house as a vassal."
"So tell me, do you accept?"
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References :
— "Skouliki Theos" translated to "Worm God".