It really was wierd.
Just a moment ago I was in pure ecstacy not feeling any pain that was inflicted by the vines.
It felt like a cozy sleep, wrapped around in your warm blankets on a cold and rainy day.
I didn't have better analogy to describe it but you get the idea.
But now?
I resisted the urge to bite my tongue off and kill myself right now.
Not like I had the energy to even do that.
A man stood besides me but his face was impassive as he watched me silently suffer.
I have to admit that he is very handsome,
Standing at an height of... atleast taller than me.
He had blonde hair which wasn't too long nor too short and he had soft emerald eyes.
'If I was a woman this would be my ideal man.'
But personality over looks.
Or someone would like to say.
He just observed me, that felt really infuriating.
"Out of hundreds only you made it out alive."
He stated in a plain tone while he turned around to leave.
'Seriously?'
Is that he all had to say?
He left the tent leaving me alone with my thoughts.
'It still hurts.'
My whole body was healed by the church but the pain I was feeling wasn't anything physical.
'Soul.'
It was just ache but more intense sometimes it's low and sometimes it goes very high.
'The sacrifice has something to do with the soul.'
Now, souls are believed to be one of the most fragile objects in the world.
And if an injury to the soul happens it's impossible to heal according to my knowledge.
Gods excluded.
'I have to escape.'
There's no need to think further I'm getting publicly executed.
Already being sacrificed to an evil gods was deemed worthy of the guillotine.
And why am so sure they will execute me?
Even if they don't want to the peer pressure from other churches will force them to do it especially the church of death.
'Those murderous psychopaths only joined the church just so they can kill without repercussions.'
It was something my brother told and I don't
know if it's true and I absolutely would not like to know.
'But I can't even move.'
The pain would intensity even with a twitch of muscle.
'Okay that's an exaggeration but it still hurts like hell.'
I'm sure that I need to rest atleast for a few months.
Unless they decided to use their god-given powers to heal me but why would they do that?
'My armor is still on.'
They didn't even have the courtesy to take it off of an injured.
But can't blame them, if they want to remove it they would also need to remove my limbs along with it.
My helmet was a great example, it was caved in and I could feel it poking my left cheek.
'To be honest if I want to escape I need external help.'
Who would help me in this situation?
My brother?
No he wouldn't, right now he must be at a tavern trying to satisfy his pathetic libido.
My friends?
Keep it real, delusion won't help as I have no friends.
Then who?
'Should I really accept it?'
The wierd feeling as if something was squeezing my heart, it started the moment I woke up.
I still remember that vivid dream of that hunter who slayed a god.
It all felt real and I was trying to distract myself to not think much about it.
The more I thought about it the more I felt like being sucked into the story.
'A backstory perhaps?'
I don't know if it really happened or it was something done by the cult to mess with my brain.
'To feel sympathy for the horned god?'
Heh.
A god don't need no mortals pity.
'However the gods can pity me right?'
I relaxed both body and mind,
slowly letting my thoughts wander.
My heart tightened the more I relaxed.
It didn't hurt which was a suprise but a happy one for sure.
'So is this the only choice I have?'
Most cults have their own combatants which are obtained from sacrifices.
These combatants are the failed subjects obtained from rituals.
'Rituals and blessings are the same stuff.'
Difference being one is done by evil gods while the other one is done by the good ones.
Blessings are done by the church to obtain some fraction of the power their god symbolises.
These people are trained from a young age and are only able to do the ritual if they are deemed worthy.
Rituals on the other hand are done by mostly cults.
But unlike the churches most people who do it aren't worthy.
So what happens to them if they try it?
The divinity would erase their whole being and turn them into a mindless creature.
They weren't worthy of divinity it seems.
'mindless creatures.'
That's what most people use to refer them to.
But even if they are failed subjects it doesn't mean they're weak.
'The churches doesn't produce any indignus because they only choose the worthy ones but there must be a trick to it.'
'I was sacrificed but that's another way to obtain a mindless creature.'
Sometimes cults would do large scale human sacrifices to obtain more mindless creatures.
I'm not sure if this was one of those but the tightness in my heart doesn't seem normal.
The only thing that makes me confused is that I haven't turned into one yet because it's an immediate transformation.
'Even if it's true would my freedom be above my sanity?'
Unable to think, speak nor feel.
Being trapped in your own body.
'Hellish.'
I would not even wish that on my worst enemy.
I know there's a trigger that being my acceptance.
I don't know how I knew it but somehow I knew.
Hehe, I'm going crazy by the moment I hit my thirties if I keep on going like this.
Or way before that.
I closed my eyes.
The pain didn't lessen but the tightness in my heart did.
My mental health was ranked above my physical one.
I rejected it.
The tightness disappeared.
But I knew it's still there somewhere hidden inside me, waiting for a chance.
'If I'm fated to get executed then I will but it's better than being a mindless creature.
********
Wiccan forest:
I sat on a piece of log as I guarded the tent behind me.
It might look wierd seeing a single tent inside the forest with only one person guarding it.
'Boring.'
I was alone, my whole order was spread across the forest.
I held a single piece of paper in my hand, it was letter from the church .
A lot of fancy words was written on it but the goal was simple.
'Hunt them all and burn the forest down.'
Pretty straightforward if you ask me.
'Too late.'
This decision was too late.
This should've been done the moment this forest started to be called th Wiccan forest.
Were they stupid?
This was a disaster waiting for to happen.
Speaking of disasters the knight guy laying inside the tent popped up in my mind.
'That guy is wierd.'
His soul is damaged and he is on the brink of transformation.
The other sacrificed victims have already been turned into a mindless creature and slayed right after.
Although they pose a threat towards normal humans, we the blessed ones are different.
'Tenacity? Or did a mistake occur during the process?'
It was surprising to see someone resist the transformation.
'He hasn't blinked even once since he woke up and all he did until now was stare at the ceiling.'
There is a risk of him just turning into a mindless right now but that won't be much of a problem for me.
All I needed to do was guard the guy until the mission is over.
Estelle will lead the order in my absence too.
But it was too boring to be honest.
Just sitting here with nothing to do with no source of entertainment.
'If John was here he might've pulled some prank on the guy for a laugh or two.'
But he is on the mission and considering his pranks are a bit 'wierd' maybe him not being here is a good idea.
'I remember when he took a beggar to a fancy restaurant and leaving it right before paying the bills.'
'Also that one time when he convinced a death row inmate that if he danced on the streets naked he would be released.'
'Long story short that guy's death is now recorded as one of the most embarassing deaths in history books right now.'
-Click-
A sound similar to dripping water resounding throughout the area.
'Them again?'
I sighed and slowly stood up.
-Click-
Slowly huge goats, deers, mooses, all kinds of horned animals with disfigured bodies emerged from the thick forest surrounding.
Oh, did I forget to mention I was in a forest clearing right now?
Where else do you think we would build a tent?
I sighed and raised my sword, which was already bloodied from a previous encounter with these guys.
-click-
They didn't move and just stared at me with their huge blood red eyes.
'They look a bit scary to be honest.'
And with a final sigh I rushed towards them.