A Sinner’s Chance

Dawn had long since passed by the time I finished creating the ritual area, and I was feeling quite lethargic from the extended use of magic I had nearly no Affinity with. However, everything was now ready, there was only one more thing I wanted to do before I started the ritual, interrogate the ringleader of the ruffians.

I had recently gained another Aspect Skill that seemed like it would be helpful with this very task, Amun-Re's Eye. It had shown up after I had absorbed Hathor's Divinity, and it was the kind of Skill that was greatly helpful for interrogation, though I was sure there were better uses I wasn't able to figure out how to activate them.

'Amun-Re's Eye: A unique Skill that only exists when the five Aspects of the Eye of Re are in a single place. It is a representation of violence, pestilence, judgement, and vengeance. Increases the efficiency of all of its Aspects original strength. Divinity Breaker is unable to break the seal.'

The sole problem with this Skill was that unlike the other Aspect Skills I had gotten so far, it had a physical manifestation, a third eye that opened upon my forehead and overlaid my normal sight. Unless I was looking at a person nothing seemed to change, but when anyone was in my view, I could see a set of translucent scales behind them, a feather on the right plate, and a heart on the left, and depending on criteria I didn't quite understand the scale would tilt left or right. However, the scale would also gently tip left and right when a person spoke, depending on if they lied or not, the heart for lies, and the feather for truth. However, it wasn't infallible as it only tipped with regards to the intention of the words, a lie meant to protect tilted towards the feather, as well as if the person thought they spoke the truth, while using the truth or a lie maliciously or with only self interest in mind tilted towards the heart.

I had been extremely pleased with the Skill when I first discovered that fact, but unfortunately I had to leave the third eye uncovered as it could have its vision obstructed just as with my regular eyesight. I still hadn't figured out what else it could do since it stated that beyond judgement, it also did violence, pestilence, and vengeance, but Steria, the one who would be best informed on it, refused to say anything when I showed her the eye, her fur standing and tail stiff as if the eye was an object to be feared. So the Skill was currently only useful in situations such as this where I wasn't worried about what the other party thought or knew about me.

I stood in front of the well dressed man, who was now tied to a stone pillar rather than a tree, and opened my new eye, a somewhat unsettling feeling as the skin on my forehead split open like an eye. The man had been awake for quite sometime and he'd already been fearful when I initially approached, but the new eye must have given him a deeper fright as he began to struggle against his bonds despite knowing it was useless.

I stared at him watching the translucent scale manifest behind him, the scale falling mostly to the right, the side of the feather. "How did you hear about me, and how did you find my carriage?"

The man could only struggle as I fixed my gaze on him before he eventually caved to the pressure. "I was hired by the church, they told me all the information I had and told me to find evidence of your sins. As for tracking you, I received a magical compass that pointed in your direction."

While to him it must have seemed that my glare only deepened, I was actually focusing on the scale as it subtly lowered the feather, meaning that he was telling the truth, at least as far as he was aware of it. Even if I hadn't used the eye, his story made enough sense, it was my fault that their Hero had to be sent away after all, I was probably deemed a dangerous enemy of Iustitia's church, something I hoped didn't extend to the other churches, as it meant that getting into the Divine City of Luxuria eventually was going to be a issue.

The biggest problem was that I didn't have the backing or power to take on the church. It wouldn't be impossible to attack them and survive given that I was a Divine Enemy and was basically a perfect counter to most of whatever they could likely throw at me, but I could only ensure my safety. I often thought my life would have been much easier if I hadn't formed any attachments, something you'd think I'd have learned from the past twenty lives. However, it was too late to change the past and I could only continue to forge my path in the world as I saw fit.

I tried to glean more information from the man but he really was just a pawn in a larger game it seemed, just an ambitious fool who had thought to gain favor and fame through the church. Still, even if he was just a pawn, I didn't plan to leave any mercy for those I deemed enemies, not only Velen, but Velkis had learned that mercy on enemies only came to bite you in the ass later, even if they were only low level mobs with no real power. The only time I didn't abide by this was when the consequences of killing my foe would be worse than leaving them alive, such as the situation with the Hero. While the church might be hunting me now, it could only be done through fools and in the shadows, whereas if I had outright killed the Hero, the church would have had an excuse to openly confront me, not something I could deal with at this point in time.

It was unfortunate that I wasn't really able to get anything useful from the interrogation other than the fact that the church was after me. With the interrogation finally done, it was time to begin the ritual I had been preparing for, bringing Renae back into her body and let her live once again, though she would still be technically dead.

The block of Ice I'd once frozen her body in was shattered and the limp corpse placed onto the central altar. Around it were five pillars with one of each of the ruffians tied up, a channel carve both into the pillars and the floor would direct the flow of their blood, an important component for this ritual, and finally was Renae's Banshee from floating above her body in the same position as the corpse. While the ritual would normally require the use of at least five mages, I had plenty of mana to cover the deficit and neither Steria nor Arya had any Affinity for Heresy, so even if they wanted to help they couldn't.

I stood outside the circle and began to chant ominously as I held the black book out in front of me. I ignored the pained screams and pleas of help from the five men as I continued to chant, the sound of squelching meat as the men's flesh was turned and compressed by the ritual as their blood was squeezed from them like the juice from an orange or lemon. The blood pooled in the channels and began to flow through the magic circle, dying the stony indents red with blood.

As if the world could sense the cruelty of the ritual, dark clouds began to form, followed by a few drops of rain that soon became a torrent as the wind howled, while thunder and lighting cracked and flashed. However, despite the chaos, there seemed to be a dome of complete calm around the ritual area, courtesy of Vibro magic as I amplified the sound waves to deflect the rain and cancel out the wind. The versatility and usefulness of Vibro magic never ceased to amaze me, just when I'd thought I discovered all the kinds of waves and oscillations it could affect a book from Seshat's Library would prove me wrong. It was a shame that my range was so limited otherwise I could only imagine the kind of damage I could inflict upon enemies, even while remaining unseen. Even scarier was that I'd learned to infuse other magic into it, allowing me all manner of shenanigans that were extremely useful.

Soon the sound of the men ceased as they either went unconscious or had outright died from the absolute cruelty and viciousness of the ritual. However, not only did I not know or care for them, they had actively sought to harm me so it was only right that they be punished for their foolishness. The only way to deter fools was to make such actions not worth the risk, and I doubted the church had just let this one man to his own devices; he was sure to have an observer, though I doubt I'd ever find it.

While it was true that this ritual would incriminate me for heresy, it would be quite some time before they could ever use the information, I was favored in the public's eyes, and I imagined if they learned that the church was just as dirty as the Hero there would be some serious repercussions. It wouldn't be a problem had it happened anywhere but the Eldora Academy, the children of high ranking people from all walks of life attended so it wasn't hard to imagine the rumors that had spread throughout not only the kingdom, but the continent, especially since the Academy would likely back up the claims, it would raise their prestige after all.

The ritual itself took nearly an hour and had turned the men that were stuck to the pillars into withered husks devoid of life as Renae lowered into her body, the twisted and tattered from of the Banshee fading away as the once still corpse began to move once more, first with twitching, before larger movements that eventually led her eyes opening and sitting up. Her corpse had changed drastically from when I'd first seen it, and seemed to resemble her when she had been a Banshee. It was like she had become devoid of color, a being of pure white. Long white hair, pale white skin, even her irises had become white, the only thing defining them from the whites of her eyes being a black border between the two. If I'd known such was going to happen I would have prepared a different color of suit for her, I'd gone with a white servants outfit since it was easiest and matched her previous colors well, yet now she was simply a statue of marble or alabaster, a single monochromatic figure. 

I'd need to reconnect her Status Plate now that she was in a living body once again, thankfully I had just acquired five more in addition to Renae's original, which meant I could not only connect her so she could see what had changed, but would also be able to see Steria's, something I'd been extremely curious about since she had gotten a Vessel to use.