CH1097 The church where it started (Patreon)

Trying to do some paperwork in his office, eventually, Father Yan had to put down his pen and admit he was getting nowhere, resting his eyes instead while he tried to manage the swirling vortex that was his thoughts.

In the years since Ben had left, Yan had more than once found himself worrying about the boy who’d been in his church’s care. First worried about how he had been doing, trying to make it out there in the world alone, and then worried for his sanity as the updates that came in the mail from him only grew more and more mad. Now, though, having gotten to see Ben again after so long, he could instead only worry about how the reality of things he’d been through was so much worse than what the young man had been letting on.

When he’d shown up on that world, he’d lost everything. All of the summoned had, yet they’d still done their best, using the excitement of the experience as a distraction from the horrors of their death, but Ben hadn’t even gotten that. He’d been too weak, the only one there who hadn’t been awakened and even held some attributes worse than what one would expect of an average person his age, and as such, he’d been unwanted. No fame or fortune to go his way and soften the blow like it would for the others; instead only added yet another despair to that already difficult time.

It had led to the church itself taking him in for the time, teaching him what they could about the world, trying to prepare him the best they could for his new home, and yet, despite all of that, things had apparently only gotten worse after he’d left. Ben may have been an adult by then, but in Yan’s eyes, he was young enough to still be a child and had been through far too much in those scant handful of years, where his life was repeatedly risked.

And yet, despite that, the boy seemed to have blossomed under that adversity. Every challenge and tribulation was overcome, and his strength bloomed with it. To think that someone he’d been fretting over could now call himself one of the strongest people in the world, if not the strongest outright. Yan still remembered all the details he’d seen on Ben’s card, both good and ill, and the impact it had left wasn’t minor either. The boy had changed the world more than a few times with his insights and actions, and for all of that, he was going to be a god.

A god of so much, he chuckled to himself, choosing to ignore just what some of Ben’s future divinities might mean, trusting him even if he was going to be a god of evil, destruction, and sacrilege like no other, before slipping back into concern over the consequences such power had brought.

With the reveal, Ben had told them everything, and now Yan couldn’t help but be aware of how the gods of the world had chosen to react to a child who had once been in his care, leaving a different sort of stress.

He was a priest who devoted his worship to all of the gods in that world, but for the first time in his life, he found himself questioning whether all of them were worthy of faith. How was he supposed to dedicate his faith to any who would try to murder someone out of fear? Someone who’d been trying their best to make it in a strange new land, using what little they’d had at the start to build an actual life for themselves, while also dedicating themself to the protection and preservation of a world that had practically abandoned them?

It was a question he normally would have prayed on, but given the nature of those concerns, it didn’t seem right, leaving him to handle the reveals of the day on his lonesome, distracting him from all else and was only pulled from those circling thoughts as a knock came from his door.

“Come in,” he answered it, still needing to fulfill his role as the leader of that church, no matter what crisis of faith he was having in the moment, letting another within his ranks let themself in, giving a small, respectful bow as they entered.

“Father Yan,” Etesh greeted, one of the many priests there who would maintain the church grounds while also giving both faith to the gods and guidance to what pilgrims they would get. “I’m sorry to interrupt you while you’re busy like this.”

“It’s fine. What can I do for you, Etesh?”

“Ah, it’s a matter of Lehie. She seems more… distracted than usual.”

I can imagine. 

She’d heard the same things he had, after all, learned what Ben had been through and just what some of the gods had decided to do. It would have been more surprising if she’d been completely unfazed after that when she had been the one most responsible for preparing him for his new life on that world, unable but to help compare the boy to any of her grandchildren despite the youthful features her species had left her with.

“She received some unexpected news,” he explained, not wanting to give away more than that when he was still working through it himself. “It’s probably left her a bit shaken. If she’s acting more absentminded than usual, I’d ask that you let others know to treat her with some care for the time being while she works through it.”

“Of course,” he nodded, still looking troubled. “But the issue is, that distraction has also left her a bit more careless than usual as well.”

Yan rubbed his head. Even in the best of times, she could be careless; he didn’t want to imagine how things might turn out when she had a proper reason to be distracted, leaving him to sigh before he stood up.

“I understand. I’ll go talk with her. Do you know where she currently is?”

“I last saw her in the great hall before coming here to discuss the matter with you.”

“Very well. Then you can get back to your own tasks. I’ll handle things from here.”

He would have preferred more time to himself to sort out his thoughts, but he still had his own job that he needed to do and taking care of those under him was a part of it, leaving him to walk his church’s halls until he arrived at the great one, seeing a few others gathered around Lehie when he arrived.

It was obvious enough she was being scolded, likely deserved too, but he still held back his exasperation as he made his way over, speaking up when he arrived.

“What exactly is happening here?”

“Oh, Father Yan,” the priestess Jossily sighed, looking on the verge of a migraine. “You wouldn’t believe it; I can barely believe it. Just how many statues Lehie’s broken in her carelessness today. The complete lack of respect for the divine-”

Yan only partially listened while she went on, seeing Lehie blush in embarrassment before looking around that grand room and immediately understanding what had happened. Like any other communal church, they had statues of all of the gods, representations of the divine to direct their faith to, with eighteen spots now missing, the gods gone, with only a bit of dust on the floor that hadn’t yet been completely swept away telling him exactly what happened. She’d been “accidentally” knocking over statues of the gods, leaving them broken and taken away, out of the eyes of the other priests and what few pilgrims would still visit as the world potentially neared its end, depriving them of a chance to earn faith from that one location and, unintentionally, a small smile touched his lips for that fact.

“Enough,” Yan finally said, cutting Jossily off before speaking in a low voice. “You might be unaware, but Lehie received some unpleasant news the other day. I know a few broken statues is not ideal, but we can always send word to their church and request for more.”

“I see,” the priestess nodded, willing to be far more sympathetic even without knowing the reason. After all, what else could it be? Surely demons had slaughtered someone or multiple someones the woman had cared about. Given the state of the world, what else could it be?

“Thank you. And Lehie, if you want to keep working, then I won’t stop you, but if you break… let’s say two more things, that will be your sign to stop and retire for the day. Understood?”

“Yes father Yan, thank you,” she told him, smiling his way at the unvoiced approval of her actions, letting him turn to go back to his office, feeling just a bit lighter himself, no matter how the gods he gave his faith might have felt about it.

Author’s note!!!!

Okay, here we are, end of this story arc! Yay, feels good and managed to get plenty done in it too. Confrontation between Ben and the gods, Ben putting all of those sacrilege levels to use and showing the gods of the world they’re long past the point of suppressing him, fixing Inux after so long, and also long overdo, finally sending Ben to hell. 

Altogether, pretty happy with it. The biggest issue with this arc is more of an issue with my timing and plotting. I introduced Inux something like a million words ago to give Ben something to work towards, a project so far beyond him that working to fix him could be a long term goal, but story wise, as far as long term goals go, it did end up feeling like a smaller one than I’d hoped. Something I needed Ben to reach a certain level of power to approach, yet also something that might have been better if it had been solved two or three story arcs after it had been introduced, rather than something that would be completed near the end of the story. Still, it’s done and I’m fairly happy with the result and I hope you all got a kick out of it too.