“In hindsight I'm really grateful that I went through all that, I guess I have you to thank.” Lock told the statue of Kruto as he sat before it, carving a small statuette from a piece of wood he'd found outside.

“No, really,” he continued, “I gained some great experience. In more ways than one, it's also good that I was forced to kill Grandfather in a high stress situation, I would have hesitated and suffered a lot more if I had had to do it in cold blood.”

Lock fell silent again, giving Kruto time to speak if he so chose. He continued working on the small wooden carving in his hands, the shape of a person slowly becoming apparent.

“I suffered less in the long term due to my suffering being put forward, is time preference also a part of your teachings?” He asked.

“I could definitely see the connection. It might seem cruel to make a child suffer through harsh training in his early years, but in the long term he's going to have a pretty big advantage over everyone else.” He said, starting to work on the appearance of the carving now that he was done with the general shape.

“Sweat now so you don't bleed later and all that.” Lock said.

The churches of Kruto were actually fairly interesting in how the divine power was channelled to the believers within it. Some churches accelerated healing, others skill attainment.

Kruto's churches simply gave the believer some slight skill in carving so that one may continue the tradition of leaving within them an effigy of the suffering and hardship that one had went through.

Naturally he also suspected that Kruto didn't have much divine energy to spare, changing the fates of the people that worshipped him so actively, putting challenges in their path that they may grow from. It couldn't be a very easy job, Fate being a fickle mistress and all.

Lock didn't have anything to say after that, he just sat there and continued carving, letting the foreign influence guide his movements. He was carving a statue of an old man with a sword in his hand, a buckler on his back. A fairly obvious depiction of his Grandfather. The centrepoint of the hardship that he'd recently underwent.

Well it would be a fairly obvious depiction if he was actually good at carving, but even the god's guiding hand could only do that much.

He was finished soon, and by soon he meant in an hour. It was a calming activity, and he felt the last vestiges of bitterness that he'd still been holding onto flow out of him and into the statuette. “Great idea with the carvings, very rejuvenating.” He remarked to the statue.

Lock put the finished statuette of an old man with the other carvings, a bear, a dead infant, a broken sword and many more. He actively stopped himself from trying to interpret what the carvings meant. It was a very private affair, and he would probably get it wrong anyway.

Hardly anyone would be able to understand why an old man represented hardship for him after all, they'd probably think he'd had to fight one or something equally as stupid, and therefore he did not trust himself in understanding the carvings of others either.

He made to leave, but the voice of the young girl, the blind one, with chestnut brown hair that had also been present during this visit interrupted him.

“Why do you carve?” She asked.

It wasn't an aggressive question. It was an honest one. She'd also done him the favour of staying quiet and simply sitting there in the corner as he finished the statuette and conversed with Kruto. It was an improvement over last time, so he was more inclined to answer it.

Lock sat back down, turned towards her trying to establish eye contact, only to find himself looking at empty brown orbs staring into nothing. He looked away.

“Well, it's a rite that people do when they've lived through a hardship that has furthered their skills, their very being and such. The thing that you carve is meant to represent what you went through. You basically let the bitterness of the whole thing flow into the thing that you carve as you do it, that's how I see it at least. We, the followers of Kruto, gather up all the carvings on the winter solstice and burn them in a huge bonfire, which represents truly getting over the cruelty inflicted upon us.” Lock explained

“What did you carve?” The girl further asked.

It was personal, but she would have been able to see what he'd carved anyway if she could, you know, see, so he told her. It would have also felt weird not rewarding her change in attitude “An old warrior, male, don't try to interpret the carvings though, it's usually a deeply personal thing and you would probably come to the wrong conclusion anyway.” He thus told her.

Lock felt that she wasn't done with the questions, so he stayed sitting there as she mulled over what he'd said.

Then came the question he'd been expecting.

“Does it work, the carvings, do they help?” She asked, almost, pleadingly.

He smiled at her, even though she couldn't see it, she would probably be able to discern it from his voice. “It does, the amount it helps depends on the person of course, the effect is probably also heightened if one is a true follower.”

The girl turned her head downwards, thinking. “I learned to see recently, you know, but I already exhausted all my mana today, so I can't use the spell right now.” She said eventually.

Lock was... shocked. He'd met the girl six days ago, she'd been angry back then, signifying that she did not see any chance of gaining sight. For her to do so, in such a short time... It must have not been that hard, she must have been very mad at herself for not having learned whatever skill she'd learned sooner.

No, he shouldn't assume too much, she'd probably been working on it longer and had simply hit a rut in her progress the last time he'd seen her.

Those were his thoughts. What he actually said was a simple, “Congratulations”.

Which seemed to make her day, as her face brightened up and she smiled at him.

“How do I become a follower of Kruto?” She asked, always with the questions, but he was glad that someone was showing interest in his faith, it would be remiss of him if he acted so crudely to turn her away from it.

“Well, first you read the scriptures, which might be a bit hard for you, I recommend seeking out a priest, they would be willing to read the whole book to you if you asked nicely enough. When you're done with that, well, there's only one step left. You touch Kruto, he's the guy hanging out on the cross right there, you probably haven't seen him yet if you're out of mana. You need to touch him for a few seconds, it's going to hurt, a lot, but the touch forges a connection, strengthened by prayer, through which he can affect your life. Manipulating events so that you are more likely to end up going through manageable hardships that make you stronger for having underwent them.” Lock said, to the nodding of the girl.

He hesitated a bit before mentioning the next part.

“You can also touch him a second time, the pain is worse, the reward you gain from it is dependant on the duration that you manage. What you gain, be it a skill, an item, or information, it's never possible to use it to avoid hardship, the opposite often. It makes it more likely for it to find you, but also for you to live through it.” He explained

“Have you done it?” She asked, at which he shook his head, before cringing.

“No, I never thought my pain resistance was strong enough to make it worthwhile, and you can only do it once in your life.” He answered.

A sudden thought struck him however.

Was his pain resistance still not strong enough though? He'd recently underwent some rather unpleasant things. His capacity to suffer should have expanded to a certain extent. He wasn't as young as he looked either, not truly. A man with many years, and many unpleasant experiences behind him, the most recent one being quite hefty in emotional impact. Would there ever be a better opportunity to attempt the venture?

Even if there were. Advantages should always be gained as early as possible so that they may snowball into other advantages. Waiting for a time when his will was sharpened even more was plausible, if there was a possibility of encountering greater suffering in the future, but was there truly? Having to kill a loved family member was not an occurrence that came up often, and he'd already killed the one he loved the most.

He was obviously just trying to rationalize not doing it. Nobody liked pain, and this particular ritual of Kruto was famous, even in a world where magical torture existed, to be excruciatingly agonizing.

Rationally speaking it would be better to do it now, so that any advantage gained may start an avalanche of future advantages as early as possible. Emotionally? The faster he gained strength, the less likely it would be that he would ever again be forced into a situation where thrusting his sword through a relative to get at the enemy was the only viable solution.

Lock looked down at his hands, they were steady, almost too steady. He felt extraordinarily calm. This feeling, how long had it been since he'd last felt it? Several decades.

It was the all encompassing feeling of purpose that one gained when one came upon a moment of one's life. Where one knew, without a doubt, what was to be done.

“I think I'll do it now.” He said, in a rather simplistic manner, bellying the gravitas of the decision he'd just made.

“Will there be divine energy involved?” The girl asked.

“Yeah, the longer I hold on, the more will come.” Lock answered as he started undressing his doublet and the shirt beneath.

“I might be able to feel it then, divine energy is weird like that.” The girl said, seemingly happy. An unfitting emotion for this particular occasion, but she likely didn't know better so he forgave her.

His upper body freed from the confines of clothing he unceremoniously approached the statue of the god on a cross. He stood before it, looking to see if there were any handholds, and upon not finding any, sucked in a large amount of air, and braced himself.

Now or never.

He touched his right hand on the god's emaciated chest, and before the pain could really register slid it to the right while approaching to plaster his entire body onto the statue in a bear hug, interlocking his hands behind the God's back.

The pain started slowly, it would be quite sad if someone lost their chance because they were startled after all. A burning sensation slowly spread throughout the entire part of his body that was in contact with the god. As if he'd laid a hand on a hot cooking plate, but couldn't remove it.

The heat grew more intense, he was calmed by the fact that he had his eyes open, and could see that his flesh was not melting away to reveal his bones, as it felt like. It was just an illusion he reassured himself.

A bone wrenching sensation started encompassing his limbs, as if they were being bent to the point of breaking, without the breaking actually occurring, and then even further beyond that.

His will held fast, you did not break off a hug seconds after initiating it.

Hornets started burrowing around in his arteries. Every second that he held on, lowered the possibility of him ever being forced into a position where he would have to do something he did not want to. Cold metal spikes were driven into his head, creating a painful contrast to the heat that he now felt all over his body.

Lock managed to open his mouth through the agony, his whole body shaking. “Th-at all you got?” He managed to say shakily, spittle flying from his lips.

Kruto apparently took it as a challenge

Lock’s spine shattered into an infinite amount of shards that then drove themselves into his organs. The pain was beyond anything he’d ever imagined possible in the physical realm. He unwillingly flinched back, only managing to hold on because he'd intertwined his arms behind the statues back.

The shards exploded, shredding his organs, and he screamed a sound that one could usually only hear from a dying animal.

His skin was flayed off, he was dunked in acid, his eyeballs were pressed out, every millisecond felt like an eternity, and when he started reaching a point of no return, where he knew that if he were to continue holding on he would lose himself in madness, he let go.

He stumbled backwards, all the pain suddenly disappearing, and crashed down the few stairs that elevated Kruto above the rest of the church. The feeling was pleasant in comparison, and so were the splinters from the rough wooden floor that drove themselves into his back.

He lay there heaving.

“Are you fine?” A young female voice asked, sounding worried.

Ah yes, chestnut hair, she was present, his mind managed to bumble out through the shock of what he'd just underwent.

Lock couldn't answer, body still spasming from the illusionary pain it had just underwent.

Once you stopped touching the statue, the pain stopped immediately. That was not how pain usually worked, thus his body was panicking, confused and hurting itself in confusion.

The girl stayed silent after her question.

Only his ragged intakes of breath interrupted the silence for a while. The spasms and delirium of the corpus slowly decreasing in intensity. Eventually he righted himself up, his body only giving some small twitches, and when he saw the skill that he'd just gained, he gave his answer. The fact that he would never be able to do the ritual again seemingly granting him wings.

“Better.”

ARC ONE END

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