Chapter 153

“Welcome, brothers and sisters, to the day Her glory shall purify the land once again!” Marthas began. His voice rumbled through the temple grounds, and all chatter ceased immediately.“It is indeed a glorious day, for Sashara the Ever-Burning has already shown herself to us, and today, we shall witness her blessings as a community!” The words were exactly what Nick would expect from any preacher, but Marthas’ presence gave them more weight. Given that the goddess had truly descended among them, as short and limited an intervention it might have been, people were more than primed for religious worship.

Nick observed many touching their foreheads in respect, while others even closed their eyes and opened their arms as if waiting to receive her blessing.

Floria was a frontier town. That meant religion was important, but it had never been so prevalent in people’s lives, at least as far as Nick could remember.

Several events had seemingly changed that. From the Demon’s infiltration of the dungeon to the goddess’ descent, Nick knew Floria had firmly shifted to being a stronghold of the faith.

“As is said in her Word, ash is the perfect symbol of new beginnings after the end. It is what comes from fire, and just as it is born from destruction, it brings life to all.” The prelate continued, moving away from the temple and leading the procession deep into the field.

Nick didn’t doubt that it was deliberate, but he couldn’t yet see what Marthas intended to show them.

“For mortal fire needs fuel to burn, and unlike Her, we cannot command the element to appear without working for it. Whether it is mages paying in mana or farmers lighting a stack of kindling on fire, all must pay to access her domain.”

That was beginning to stray from accepted theory and into religious dogma. Still, Nick maintained a neutral expression. He was already on thin ice; he couldn’t let anyone see his skepticism.

By now, they were almost at the edge of the forest. Looking around, Nick could see several people internally questioning why they had to come this far, given that the previous ceremonies had only ever required a short walk into any field to work.

They got the answer as Marthas gestured for them to stay behind and took the last few steps from the treeline. Grabbing hold of the closest branch—three feet thick and ten feet long— he proceeded to wrench it out, drawing a groan from the tree and gasps from the onlookers at the abrupt display of strength.

“Fear of the unknown is natural to humans. It is what kept us safe in the times before She blessed us with her light. But now that She is with us, we must not allow that fear to rule us!” Marthas roared, shaking the air with the power of his voice.

The priests who had been shadowing him quickly rushed to his side and offered a brazier that Nick recognized immediately. It was the one that had been next to the temple’s central hearth.

“With this, I call upon Sashara the Ever-Burning to cleanse the land of any taint!” He thrust the branch into the brazier, which immediately caught fire, releasing a pulse of power that sent people staggering. His eyes began to glow a fiery red as he brandished the burning branch, “May the Purification begin!”

The fire shifted from flickering red and yellow to a deep gold, engulfing the wood completely until it reached Marthas’ hand, which did not flinch.

Nick could feel the heat from where he stood, so it must have been suffocating to be so close; however, none of the priests shied away from it. Instead, they touched their foreheads and repeated the prelate’s words.

A moment later, the branch had finished burning and had turned to ash, which levitated off the ground, twisting around Marthas like a cloud.

He clapped his hands, and everyone else followed suit. A portion of the ashes drifted away from the cloud, raining down on the entire field.

Nick tracked the movement with his senses, and for a moment, he felt tempted to interfere.

The moment the last particle touched down, however, a massive pressure emerged from nowhere, one that Nick would recognize anywhere: Sashara was watching.

Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.

The ashes burst into golden flames and soon spread across the entire field. Instead of blistering heat this time, they emitted only a calming warmth, and people dropped to their knees in awe of the divine power on display. They, too, recognized the presence within the flames, having been exposed to it not many days prior.

“O Sashara, radiant flame of eternity,

Thou who art the eternal spark that sears the darkness,

We humbly invoke Thy brilliant fire this day.

From the smoldering ashes of sorrow, we call forth Thy cleansing flame

Let every ember be a testament to Thy power

And every spark a beacon of renewal.”

Marthas intoned, and soon the prayer was picked up by everyone else. Nick hesitated for a moment before joining the others, though he made sure to merely mouth the words and not say them out loud. He had already been shown what being too lax with a god could lead to. He had no intention of allowing her access again.

SYSTEM NOTIFICATION

has resisted a mid-tier divine Invocation.

Soon enough, the entire field behind the temple had burned down to a charred black, and when the last spark of fire died down, Marthas knelt in the ash, pushing his forehead into it in supplication.

When he rose, a single golden mark was left on him. “May the old flow into the new!” He shouted, and a thin layer lifted from the charred field, drifting toward him until it joined the cloud of ashes.

The procession then continued, following the traditional circle around Floria. The next field just so happened to be the one surrounding the beastmen's quarter, and for a moment, Nick feared someone might do something stupid. Fortunately, they were able to enter the grounds without resistance.

“O Divine Ember, descend upon our fertile fields,

Scatter Thy purifying ashes over the land of Flora,

That the taint of despair may be banished,

And the soil, once sullied, be reborn in golden flame.

As the ashes burst into resplendent light,

May Thy sacred fire expand Thy holy domain,

In unyielding splendor, encompassing all in Thy radiant embrace.”

Marthas again led the prayer, and as soon as the crowd finished repeating his words, he threw another portion of the ash cloud all over the field.

This time, when it burst into flames, Nick noticed several beastmen flinch, but they didn’t do anything, so he relaxed his guard. An accident now would be terrible for the fragile peace, but fortunately, Sashara’s intervention to protect them must have given even the most reckless among them pause.

When the fields had finished burning down, and another layer of ash drifted off to join Marthas’ cloud, Nick noticed a lightness in the air that hadn’t been there before.

It was extremely subtle, and he wouldn’t have realized it if he hadn’t been paying attention to any changes. But, if he had to put a word to it, it felt like there had been a faint taint before that he’d become so used to he didn’t even notice, and it was now missing.

Under normal circumstances, the procession took six hours to cover the entire field when Vicar Alexander performed the ceremony—whom Nick noticed was absent despite this technically being a mandatory ceremony.

Marthas was cutting that time in half, despite him taking much longer to lead them in prayers and chants. Given that Sashara’s presence was so clear this year, Nick wondered how much of it was due to the priest’s ability and how much came from the goddess herself.

When they finally reached the Crowley House, Nick felt Talbot peering at them from his room’s window. He had told the cat to stay inside, and fortunately, he seemed to have followed his command.

He wasn’t sure that anything would happen, as the fires were meant to purify only tainted energies. But who knew what Sashara would consider a spiritual guardian to be?

Marthas sprinkled the ashes again, covering the vast fields in just a few minutes, and when he was done, he clapped his hands once more.

“Great Sashara, Ever-Burning,

Grant us Thy fiery benediction,

That our hearts may be purified and our spirits strengthened.

Let the golden conflagration of Thy mercy

Transform our strife into the sacred dance of renewal,

Where the fields awaken under Thy divine sovereignty

And each flame sings the hymn of unending grace.”

Golden flames engulfed his family’s land, and Nick felt a strange sensation of powerlessness. This wasn’t a bad thing, but the fact that a goddess could spread her power over his family’s land while he could do nothing about it… It didn’t sit right.

Before he could finish the thought, Nick felt his eyebrows lift as the atmosphere changed. For a brief instant, it wasn’t just Sashara’s presence that could be felt in the flames, but something from within the house, too.

Shocked, he extended his awareness, trying to understand if Talbot had attempted to interfere. A great breath escaped his lungs as he found his companion safe and sound. The secondary presence receded, but Nick had identified its origin.

When the flames finally faded, he turned his attention to the fields, scouring the land for anything different. Surprisingly, he found it immediately, but it was not what he’d expected.

Where the previous cleansing had left the land immaculate and its atmosphere lighter, the change here was much more noticeable. Nick had caused most of the local shifts in the ambient mana, so he knew he might have just gotten too used to them. But now that every last mote of extraneous mana had been cleansed, he could tell that his experiments and rituals had heavily affected the fields.

So much so that if they had been left alone, he wouldn’t have been surprised to find elementally charged ingredients sprouting up.

There would be nothing of the sort now, but that wasn’t necessarily bad. He’d leave soon, and if something happened because of his tinkering, Nick wouldn’t be able to forgive himself.

Not that Nick believed the previous rituals had been quite this powerful, but they would have chipped away at anything over the years.

This was a greater ritual. Something that would typically require dozens of men working in concert for weeks to prepare was being conducted by a single priest. No matter how much the people’s faith might ease his task, Marthas was achieving a feat that Nick would have deemed impossible, and he was doing it without making it seem any different from the regular, lesser ritual that Alexander had performed.