A Crusade of Catastrophe [4-A Residing Evil]

(This chapter starts in Lana's perspective)

The Morning light illuminated the interior of their carriage, the two priestesses riding out of the city with much less fanfare than Lana was accustomed to. Due to the recent events, they had decided it was best to leave with discretion.

Lana sat silently as she stared down at her lap in shame. It may have been over a day since the duel, but her mentor had most certainly not dropped the event. Karen had spent the entirety of the previous day either lecturing her or making attempts at an audience with her father.

Thinking of Karen made her momentarily glance towards her mentor, catching in her vision the cost of her arrogance. Karen's right arm rested upon a pillow, her veins tinted a slight green and her arm swollen to an uncomfortable degree, for both her and observers.

As Lana unwittingly winced, Karen turned to look at her again. "Just learn from your mistakes from now on. And pray whatever affliction this has left me with is reversable." Her tone was extremely serious.

Lana curled herself more inwards, trying to be as small as possible, "I-I'm sorry, lady Karen. I wasn't expecting him to be strong in the least. You must agree, what he was saying about his god seemed impossible."

Karen gave her a slightly less rude glare, "Yes, as we have previously discussed, the statement that there is a new god is nigh unbelievable. And I do agree that the addition of this god being male makes it even more blasphemous. However, we now have to go report that not only is that information true, but that they also bested one of our best recruits and damaged a high priestess in a rightful duel that we challenged him to."

Lana gave a nod and left her head low once more. 'She is being charitable, saying that we challenged him. I do agree she did nothing to stop it and most certainly seemed to encourage it. However, in the end, it was my actions that led to this, and I shall have to atone for them.'

Karen let out a sigh as she looked forward, "As you know, we are stopping at the new camp in the woodlands, as that was our objective in the first place. Once we have a grasp on the situation here in regards to the darkness' movements in the woods, we can then go and report this travesty."

Lana gave a slight nod. 'This definitely seems like the best option. It runs the risk of the news beating us, but it would look disgraceful if we also failed in our church-given task. It also gives more time for her to think of a way of spinning this that doesn't risk both of us getting expelled.'

At last, the carriage came to a stop at a point along the road. She could see the pathway that led to the military camp, though she had never yet been there. She swallowed as she stood up, opening the door and helping her senior out of the carriage.

Karen let out a sigh as she stepped onto the ground, "This news had better be good, otherwise I don't know how we are going to keep our heads after our report." Lana agreed, she hoped that everything here had went well for both their sakes, and her home's.

As if to spit in the face of their wishes, they heard a man frantically calling out. "High Priestess Karen! Lady Lana!" They both turned to the path to see a sigh that drained the blood from their faces. Running towards them, was a man dressed in robes of the church of light.

He was clutching his right side with his left arm, his right arm hanging limply. His robes were soaked with blood, and yet more ran down his forehead. His robes had rips and tears all along them, and dirt was caked over his entire body.

Karen squinted as he stumble-ran towards them, "Reff? Reff what happened to you?!" She started to run forward.

As she did, Reff called out, "It's coming! We gotta-"

Suddenly a towering figure crashed into the ground between them, causing all of them to stumble back. It let out a horrifying roar while leaning slightly back, letting its arms free to maneuver slightly. It lowered its gaze upon Reff, who shook his head in terror before turning around to run.

His run ended short as he tripped upon a root in the path, falling to the ground. As he began to crawl backwards from the monster, he cried out. "Karen! Help!" Lana looked to her side and to her horror found her teacher just as frozen as she was.

Lana looked back to see the creature pick up Reff with its left arm, one that was malformed and covered with thick boney plates. As it held Reff, she could swear she saw a magic mark appear in his hand, only for it to shatter and him to look down in disbelief.

The horrid thing slowly raised him until they were at eye level, leaving Reff hanging a good two feet or so off the ground. They slowly raised their right arm towards Reff's head, who was struggling in vain to try and escape.

The thing suddenly placed its clawed right hand upon his face, and Lana watched in complete and utter fear as a bone spike penetrated through Reff's head all the way, leaving a good distance simply hanging in the air.

At last it seemed her mentor found the ability to do something, as she cried out, "NO!" Her tone was somewhat defeated, and clearly she was still unable to truly move and fight the beast who stood with its back to them.

In a quick yet brutal motion, the murderer withdrew the spike and spun around, tossing the now limp corpse towards them. As Reff's lifeless corpse landed on the ground about halfway between them, it seems that they finally caught its attention.

The horrific abomination tilted its head for a second before speaking in a bone-chilling voice that seemed a hybrid between a monstrous growl and a deep, intelligent voice. "Light..." That was the only word it said as it began to step forward towards them once again.

Lana looked to Karen, who was still somewhat in shock. She heard her mentor mutter under her voice, "Reff?" Clearly, she would be on her own to decide what to do at the second. And she had to figure it out fast, as it was stepping forward at a deceptively slow pace compared to its arrival, seemingly playing with them.

She looked back to the cart for a moment. She could run, or she could fight...