14: A broken world
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14: A broken world

Annabelle’s view

I don’t think any of my training really prepared me for this. This world and it’s people are just so… so alien! A world where hearing a voice they know isn’t theirs is common and expected! At least most ordinary kinds of mental illness seem to be absent. From the stories, it sounds like the church’s magic can cure it. Awfully convenient considering how easily a tiny bit of hallucination could turn disastrous when people are already accustomed to listening to strange voices. 

With how many people need consultation and counselling, and how many seriously need a good friend to listen and provide comfort, this doesn’t seem like something I can really do alone. I’m gonna have to look into how a being of dreams like myself, can summon more of myself. Sure, that’s technically not my job, but I don’t think I can rely upon my supervisor for this; she’s just too new to all of this. Making someone into a god with no training or tutorial is just mean.

Lae’s view

While I’m not convinced a single dream demon will be enough to solve things, it should at least help the ones in the worst shape. Help diminish the severe sanity loss this world seems to suffer from. Unfortunately, I feel like I’m making Divine Points far too slowly right now to focus on making more dream demons. Also: If my smarter monsters involve summoning, then maybe I should plan things a little differently. If I can deliberately summon someone to help me out, that might make things easier. Someone who can help me make more DP.

… I’m going to need another month to accrue enough DP. *sigh*

Belle’s view

At this point, I’m far more grateful I got lil’ dee than I ever thought I would be. The little thing helps so much when I need to relax and refresh myself. Coming home to see my sick father has not gone at all how I thought it would and instead of just helping out family, it seems our little trio of adventurers is busy trying to rebuild an entire town. 

When we first arrived, there was already a fairly grand fight going on with all the local adventurers and guards fighting against some strange winged beast. The real trouble though, was that it spoke with the voice of angels. People struggled to raise arms against it, as it slew any it deemed insufficiently obedient. We were able to help down the thing and slew it before the day was over, but did not truly learn the extent of the damage, or what the story was until after.

There had been a hero summoning ceremony. What we got was no hero. We would’ve assumed it to be just a monster, but that voice was undeniably the voice of angels. We all knew the angel’s voice. We’d heard them our whole lives. This one, upon appearing, demanded immediate obedience, and tried to lead a crusade against all whom had disobeyed the words of angels. Few had truly followed all the angels said to do, and it did not take long for it to sink in that this angel intended to kill the majority of people in town. By the time we arrived, the battle had already waged for a week, and more than half the town were dead. 

Faith in god had already been weakened due to the chaos of the past decades, and rumors spread in hushed whispers of god going mad. Such rumor wasn’t so hushed in this town anymore. Never before had the angels been so demanding. It spoke of a newly summoned evil god, and the need to exterminate all who might waver in their faith. Many of those who sought to join the Angel’s side were slain by the Angel as being too impure in their faith.

God must be mad. I truly believe there can be no other explanation. I may be too young to know what life used to be like, but the stories were never this bad. I see it in the eyes of my parents, they are more scared now than they ever were before. The whole town (what’s left of it) is scared. 

Talking with Amelia and Charlotte, we’ve agreed that telling people about Lae is a bad idea. There’s no way she could handle the hopes and fears of this town. They need someone or something to believe in, and Lae is seriously too weak. Perhaps we just need to resort to the old Adventurer maxim: Trust yourself. As adventurers, we don’t rely upon god to protect us, we rely upon our training, our experience, and our determination… but maybe I should ask Lae for more lil’ dees next time I see her, so I can give them to others. It’s really nice to be able to just spend a little time enjoying it whenever I find a chance to rest.

...

In a church somewhere…

“Hey, remember the inscription on the holy blade?”

“By the will of the god of righteousness, all evil shall be slain?”

“Yeah, that one. Here, look at it now.”

“Hmmm… ‘By the will of the god of tyranny, all unbelievers shall be slain?’ Is this really the same sword? How long has it been like this?”

“No idea. This just came back from the front lines of the war. I would like to ask the wielder, but…”

“If the sword came back, then the wielder is dead. They’ve wielded it since before the evil god’s death, right?”

“Yeah, it’s been over twenty years now.”

“Wouldn’t they have said something if it changed?”

“Maybe, but everyone they were close to is also dead by now.”

“Surely this sort of thing would be too important to just be forgotten?”

“Well, are you going to tell anyone?”

“... no, no I don’t think I will. Thinking of what would happen if we spread word of this terrifies me.”

“Exactly.”

“... so why did you share this terrifying bit of information with me?”

“Because I need someone to reassure me it’s real, and I’m not crazy.”

“... Well, it’s real, and now I wish I didn’t know that.”

***Author Note***

Ooops. Dice said there was a disaster that wrecked the town… seems I ended up shattering the town’s faith though. I’d shattered a single character’s faith in another story not that long ago… *sigh* I suppose this god is even worse than the other one. My poor world is in worse shape than I’d realized. It really needs fixing.

Final bit of chapter added to try and provide some information on how much the “good” god changed (not so good now).

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