After a few hours of walking, the group ended up in front of a two-meter gray wall. At its center, a barred gate blocked the entry to what seemed like a developed town.
Triss's strides came to a halt as she spoke, "We're here..." She then spoke, facing Adam, "... We plan on bringing you to the center circle where the church's cathedral is stationed."
'Circle? Cathedral? Woman what are you talking about? Didn't you say village? This is a whole ass town!'
Hiding his internal emotions the best he could, Adam smiled and said:
"That is fine, but will they be able to answer my questions?"
After signaling for the gate to be opened, Triss turned to face Adam, "The Pope will, he is a half-angel on the cusp of becoming whole. With you being a complete angel, I'm sure the pope himself will attend to you."
Adam nodded... He then turned his attention to Maple who had been staring at him just as she had done many times while they were in the forest.
"hmm? Is something the matter?" He said while making eye contact.
Eeep!.. "Nothing!" She quickly retracted her gaze.
'How curious.'
Turning away from her Adam followed the pair into the "village".
***
In the so-called outer circle, The buildings were like classic medieval structures in novels except the fact that the buildings were all made from pristine, white stone, and the pavement was made from a similar gray-white stone. The people populating the streets were vibrant and cheerful but every time Adam passed by one, they would stop and stare at him, as if he was some form of celebrity. Other than that they seemed normal.
***
In the middle circle, the buildings were just as pristine if not more and the Paths were much cleaner, the biggest difference, though, were the people, they wore extremely scanty clothes, some men were topless and wore only pants or discarded both pants and shirt, wearing only their underwear. The women wore cropped shirts and panties, only bra and skirts, only bra pants, and even only underwear.
While walking, Adam saw many people kissing and maybe even using tongue but he couldn't tell.
'Do these people even know each other?'
A few minutes later, Adam's gaze stumbled on a couple having sex in alley.
'What the fuck...'
He withdrew his gaze but then he saw another, then another, and another... He kept seeing this until he arrived at the last gate.
After Triss talked to the gate guards they entered the center circle. Adam looked around, seeing dark stone buildings and pavement. At the center of the buildings was a large cathedral made from similar but more pristine dark stone and had ivory and gold highlights and its edges. at the top of the cathedral was an ebony flag with the symbol of a white fox curling into a spiral, it was beautiful.
When Adam's eyes moved from the cathedral and onto the inhabitants of the center circle though, the corners of his mouth twitched and his brows furled, "Their naked..." Adam had a lot of questions, but before he got to ask any of them... A heavy pressure struck down on Adam, pushing him to his knees, and then A burning sensation blazed in his chest, making his limbs give out and causing him to fall to the fall. It seemed that the more pressure he felt, the hotter the flame burned, and the hotter the flame burned, the heavier the pressure felt, placing him in an agonizing cycle.
His eyes went dark, his body went limp, and his brain went blank. He was unconscious.