Within the cross shaped Grand Cathedral of Albion. There was a clear pool of water in the center of it where Lili stood belly deep under the gazes of many people much taller in size and higher in rank than her. And before her, in the far end of the cathedral she could see a large glass window with a mighty large picture of Christ hanging on his cross.
Like usual he was upon the cross, but here all was not as she remembered it to be. First of all Christ was no average looking skinny man. No, he was the biggest and one of the buffest mother fuckers she had ever seen.
And secondly he was not hanging on the cross, no, his dead self was flexing on the cross despite his entire body being riddled with bleeding wounds. But most peculiar of all was the confident, almost arrogant looking smile that Jesus held. In Lilis eyes this man truly seemed like the perfect description of masculinity and manliness.
Thirdly Jesus had no healthy and clean Romans and people around his dead self, looking up at him with mixed expressions. No, in the scene that this picture here depicted, there were only piles upon piles of dead soldiers bodies to be found. Their bodies were so numerous that they went all the way to the far horizon. Only a handful few, bloodied and wounded, miserable looking men remained there at his feet. By the looks of it, It seemed that this buff mother fucker, didn't go on that cross without a fight.
And to top it all off his body was glowing with blood, and under the light of the sun that's rays came through the clouds, the man truly looked like a son of god. And from behind the clouds a radiant man and a woman of light looked upon his dead ass, with approving smiles upon their perfectly sculpted faces.
Lili had not read the bible in this world or the last, but damn. This definitely wasn't depicting the shit that was most likely written on it. This was kind of like the story of Christ, but what if the writers were high on drugs or something.
Just looking at it all made her feel pumped up and maybe a bit aroused. She just couldn't help it, after all she was a girl and this was one buffed up Jesus Christ. He seemed like a real man worth looking up to, someone worthy of admiration and something that now made her really want to read the bible.
Looking at it Lili felt a sudden cold chill run through her body. Dressed only in a thin white dress, that left her shoulders exposed and just barely came down to her knees. Lili just couldn't help it, she was feeling a bit cold standing in this chilly pool of water. Why did the water need to be so cool, was it a part of her test of devotion or something like that. This she didn't know, but she could feel a sniffle coming to her nose as she felt the cool water brushing up against her flat tummy and slightly tickling her little belly button. A shiver came to her again and she could just feel her little nipples stiffen up against her thin white dress. Truly this was not nice.
Standing next to her in the pool there was a man, a muscular old man. His head was shiny and bald. This also seemed to hold true to all the other holy men here as well. To Lili It kind of seemed like these old holy men were trying to mimic their muscular idol Jesus Christ, which was quite respectable in her eyes.
Although this old dude next to her was quite different compared to the other holy and bald men. This man had style, he had a golden headband, a freaking golden chain necklace with a golden cross on it, plus some fancy red robes with golden embroideries. Clearly this man was loaded with cash, muscles and baldness.
From her studies of the book of agriculture, Lili could recall such a man being called a bishop. The book usually spoke of the bishop and his priests being an essential part of getting a good harvest as their presence and blessings were said to be able to drive evil away and make harvest's more plentiful. Although for this to work, the people working on the land needed to be pure as well and pray so that evil stayed away from the crops. So if a harvest failed it was not the churches fault, but the fault of the people and their lack of devotion to god. And so a bad harvest was merely a result of sin and a punishment from God.
Overall the book hadn't spoken much about them, but when it did they were made to seem quite important. And so they were obviously quite high ranking men, which made this situation she now found herself in quite strange.
Thinking back on how she got here she remembered that all this had started from Princess Eadlin ordering her to be baptised and made a new in front of god. Like so she could repent for the sins she had committed against the royal family, who apparently were gods chosen people, and as such it was not only them that she needed to apologise to, but god as well.
In this world it was common that almost always when someone becomes a ruler of some nation and people's, that person and his family would then be considered to be chosen by god. But of course in reality, this just was the head of the church, meaning the Pope just giving out his approvals and blessings to the rulers who nicely decided to bow down to him.
And as such the church was quite powerful and a bishop a big deal and a man high up in the chain of command. Because of this and her low rank, she was originally supposed to be baptised by a regular priest, but apparently not.
Immediately after stepping into the Grand Cathedral with the royal family and a lot of guards by her side, she had somehow managed to catch this dudes attention. Although this she couldn't quite understand. All she did was accidentally make eye contact with the bishop and check him out.
It wasn't her fault, the man just stuck out from the crowd of old men too well. And besides this was her first time seeing such a flashy bishop, so how could she not have a look at him. And so, pretty much immediately after this the man had simply just volunteered to become the one to baptise her, to everyone's surprise.
Coming out of her own rambling thoughts, Lili noticed the bishop's large hand coming slowly towards her face. It came right on her face and from there he proceeded on doing the sign of the cross on her body. His hand travelled from her head to her left breast and then to the right and lastly ended on the middle of her chest as he then took his hand away. As he did this he spoke in his old deep voice and said. "I anoint the, in the name of the father, the sons, the daughter and the holy spirit, Amen."
Honestly this was fine and all, but she just couldn't help and notice that the man's hand had been constantly brushing up against her breasts. Was this old bishop seriously trying to grab a feel of her breasts or something, like what the fuck dude? But no, surely not right, why would he do something like that and especially with so many eyes upon them.
Although the man was giving her a strange fishy feeling, but more importantly, what did he say again? Did he seriously just say that there were two sons of god and a daughter? Just how the fuck had such a thing come about? Just who were these other two children of god anyway?
But Lilis thoughts were quickly cut short as the man's right hand took a tight hold of her hair and his left hand came upon her chest. And then she was pushed back first towards the water, Lili took in a quick breath of air and then went under the water.
Through the clear water Lili could see above her a round painting of men and women standing in a circle in the clouds. Damn those clouds seemed nice, the world so silent, the water so cool and she felt at peace.
But her peace was disturbed, there was movement on her chest. The large hand on her chest moved down, it brushed over her right nipple, totally breaking her peace. Big fingers began to move around as if trying to feel her out.
Oh hell no, you bold bastard. Lili thought as she grabbed his large hand with both her dainty little hands and gently guided it back to the center of her chest. Luckily the owner of the large hand didn't refuse this and merely complied, seemingly satisfied with what he had already managed to feel.
And so the moment under water continued and continued. 10 seconds, 20 seconds, 30 seconds, now Lili was starting to feel a bit worried. Just how long was she supposed to be under the water for.
Closing her eyes she calmed herself and concentrated on staying at ease. She focused her mind inwards and set it free.
White nothingness consumed her mind and there she became nothing more than the small ball of light that inhabited her body. She became true self and it felt good. She felt like purity incarnate.
Time seemed like such a distant thing now and the mortal body of hers so irrelevant. Looking down at it she just couldn't help but notice it's great many flaws making it clearly not fit the white surroundings that were around her.
During the past month she had made sure to heal it gradually as to not suffer for too long from her injuries. But there were still faults here, the hand was still not right and the teeth had not fully come in to firm yet.
"No no no, this just wouldn't do." Said a manly voice from up above.
Looking up she could see them there. They were hidden in light, but the beard and cross on the man's back were clear to see. Wait is that Jesus?
"Indeed, one simply just cannot help others if they are weak and disfigured themselves." Said the figure of light holding a hammer of light in hand.
Then the only girl in the group of three spoke up in an angelic voice and said. "Come into your true form child, heal yourself and become your true self, just like god intended you to be. Become the image of beauty, but do not let it distract or mislead you. You must use it for the sake of others. With your outer beauty you can attract people to you and with your beauty of your pure soul you must lead them to salvation."
Hearing these words the men did not seem pleased. In protest Jesus flexed saying. "No way, only true a strong hand will people be saved."
The hammer man seemed to disagree with Jesus as he lifted up his hammer and spoke. "That might be partially true brother, but not quite. A human needs much more than just a strong hand, he need a strong mind. A mind bright enough to realise that a hammer and a armour of steel is usually a good thing to have when facing an army of Romans. These simple things might even save you from a crucifixion. No offence brother."
To this Jesus merely scoffed and said. "Be it as it may, but in the end not even you couldn't escape the ultimate fate, brother. Clearly, no worldly objects no matter how strong can save you from the ultimate fate that waits for us all. That is why I always say that your fate should be your one and only shield. Just trust in God and he will keep you safe."
To this the hammer man responded by saying. "Well well well, so your fate is your shield, huh? Hmm, well lets see how did that work out for you? Oh yeah you died, again."
Watching the two bickering brothers Lili felt enlightened but confused. Who was right and who was wrong?
Moving her gaze to the seemingly calm smiling woman, Lili felt that she had found her answer.
Turning back towards her mortal self who was being held within the pool by the bishop, as others watched the scene from the sides. The Queen, Grandma Linn, the two princesses, mister bear, Jack and others were watching her in silence. Some held their eyes closed and prayed as others looked upon her expectingly.
Looking upon them all now, they all seemed so tainted, so impure, so unpolished. In her eyes they were but a vide array of dark, unhealthy and ugly colours. Hardly any purity or cleanliness could be found within them all, except the ones she had briefly touched.
By comparison her mortal self seemed like a white beacon in the dark, a blooming white Lili floating in a sea of sewage, but even it was stained. Looking upon it's impurities she went to work.
Floating back within herself, the light slowly and calmly spread throughout her very self. It poured not only within the darkest and most imperfect of places but also within the places of near perfection. Through every fibre, every cell and molecule it went, turning them all purer.
It's mission was clear, the goal was within its sights, but it was too thin. Despite it stretching and stretching itself to the max, it just couldn't seem to do it all, it was too weak.
The goal seemed to fade and parts of it overflowed to places it didn't mean to go, to surfaces and people it yet did not mean to touch.
Keeping Lili emerged under the water, the old bishop knew not what was going on. His old eyes must have been betraying him, it almost seemed as if there was a faint glow coming off of this girl.
Despite this his mind felt fully at ease, he felt calm and at peace. His body felt light, almost like his age no longer weighed upon him like before.
Even his body as a whole seemed to start warming up, no, it was more like heating up. Was he hot? But the water was supposed to be cool? Did he have a fever? No this couldn't have been it as even the girl seemed to be heating up. Huh, wait what? Why is she heating up?
Just then Lilis eyes flew open. Her mind felt calm. It was like all seemed somewhat clearer to her now, life seemed pretty good. To her it was like she had been on a journey of sorts, although an extremely strange journey, something that she would have expected to see if she were high or something.
The dream felt a bit hazy now, but she could still recall some firm of Jesus and his supposed siblings or something, dropping knowledge bombs on her or something. Damn, she must have been high on something. Just what did they put into this water and why was it so warm all of a sudden?
Well whatever the case Lili did feel quite proud of herself. Her meditation technique had seemingly worked quite well. She knew not how much time had passed, but she did feel quite enlightened.
And by the looks of the old bishops face, even he seemed to be somewhat amazed by her. Although she did feel her reserves of oxygen almost come empty and so she decided to call it quits.
Like a professional fighter, Lili started tapping on the old bishops hand. Surely she had already done her time under water or was the man just simply trying to drown her.
Nothing seemed to be happening. Holy shit was he trying to kill her? Bubbles of air becan to leave her nose. She continued tapping at the bishops hand, but nothing. The bishop seemed totally lost in thought or something.
Now desperate and horrified, Lili began to pull on the man's hand. Holy fuck, his grip was strong and the pools floor slippery, she couldn't find anywhere to place her feet for support.
Then she noticed movement from the corner of her eyes. Then the pools water shook violently sending ripples around as two large legs landed into the water. Strong veiny hands grabbed a hold of the bishops large hands and pulled.
The waters surface before her broke as she was pulled out of the water. Finally she breath a sigh of relief, looked upon buff Jesus and his kin and said. "Oh thank God."
Next to her the bishops voice then was heard saying. "Mmm, ooh, and so this child named Lili is born a new. In the name of God and as a Christian she is now forgiven for her sins, amen."
Then the bishops hands left her body and new ones came in their places. Her shoulders were taken a hold of and body turned to face the familiar face of her knight Jack. With a concerned look upon his handsome face Jack looked down upon her and asked. "Miss Lili, are you alright?"
Hearing the concern in his voice and seeing that pitiful look on his face, Lili couldn't help but feel annoyed by this young man. Sure she was grateful to him and loved the fact that he truly cared for her and not just because it was his job. But the man was way too protective of her, he acted like she was some little rabbit that was totally incapable of taking care of its self. He held no confidence in the physical capabilities of her or any women for that matter, to him they were just precious little things in need of protecting by men.
Sure his beliefs were nice and all, but come on women could take care of themselves. Women weren't totally helpless as Jack seemed to think and some she was totally going to prove him otherwise.
Feeling defiant, Lili showed Jack a pouting face, breathed in a large breath of air through her little nose and said. "Hah, yeah, of course I'm fine just look at this."
Pushing away Jacks hands Lili turned towards the picture of her saviour buff Jesus Christ and his family in the skies, raised her right, fully healed fist into the air and yelled out. "I am healed, hallelujah!"