The church door burst open revealing Sebastian fighting against twenty Reformists. The fight spills into the church and chaos reigns as the citizens panic and disperse into the surrounding area. Sebastian grabs one of the reformists by the neck and throws him into a street stall. A blade slashed at his neck, but he blocked it with his shield and kicked the guy away from him. Sebastian grips his hammer tightly and he swung it with terrifying force, five more men flew into the air and crashed into several buildings around.

  “Watch out you dumb monkey,” Carlos said while blocking reformist attack with a golem before he stabbed Sebastian from the back.

  “I got my eyes on him.” Sebastian replied as hit the golem and the reformist in a piercing attack.

  “Can you guys not fight for one day?!” Dalia said as she heals the wounded citizen around.

  Sebastian grabbed one of the reformists and threw it towards Carlos. “Keep this one alive!”

  Carlos conjures a wall and catches the guy before he binds the guy’s hand and feet into the ground. “Don’t tell me what to do!”

  Dalia’s jaw clenched. Her patience had run thin. “You two managed half a day without bickering before throwing it all away again. What must I do to make you friends?”

  “Never!” both men barked in unison.

  Sebastian dashed through the battlefield like a bolt of divine wrath, sending his foes flying into walls, onto rooftops, and into the dirt. While he was fighting, many of the city guards were amazed by how good Sebastian's movement was. Many of them thought that Sebastian is just a brat playing soldiers by wearing his armor around, but now they see his true ability in full view.

  Not long before Sebastian knocked out and killed all of the reformists who attacked him. Sebastian thought that these guys might have the number, but they’re really bad at fighting. The conclusion he has from this is that these so-called 'Reformist’ didn’t have any training in combat, they’re mostly street urchin who barely know how to fight at all.

  “Hey you guys!” Sebastian looked at the guards who were supposed to be protecting them. “Tell me more about these ‘Reformists’.”

  All the guards exchange a terrified glance. This secret about the reformist is not supposed to be told to the Saints or any foreign guest at all. This whole incident is really bad, the Saints aren’t supposed to be roaming outside the palace and now the worst of the worst scenario hit them in the face. They’re hoping for someone to take one from the team and risk wrath from Cardinal Faust, but none of them opened their mouths out of fear. Seeing their Reaction, Sebastian wanted to be angry, but he suppressed his emotion with all his got and let out a long exhale.

  “I guess we just need to talk directly with these people,” Sebastian said as he approached one of the people he caught.

  Sebastian sees the Reformist squirming around with an angry face and shouting profanity. Despite his friend right now lying unconscious and dead, he didn't really feel afraid at all. Sebastian slaps the reformist without saying a word, then he slaps him again before he tries to say anything, then he slaps him again and again, without even saying anything. This slapping continues for at least a while before blood starts running out from the reformist mouth and his cheeks are swollen red from all the slapping Sebastian did.

  “Do you want to talk?” Sebastian asked in a freezing cold voice.

  The Reformist nods.

  “Dalia, please heal him.”

  Dalia heals the reformist with her power. The guy’s face seems to be getting better and the swelling has finally gone from his face. Then a slap came again from Sebastian's hand. And again. And again. This continues until the reformist face becomes swollen again and filled with blood. Carlos looked at that without saying anything, he strangely felt satisfied with what he saw. His old self would be squirming and throwing his face away, but now, he felt different.

  “Now,” Sebastian said, “are you ready to talk? And I mean really talk—no lies, no games.”

  Sebastian's eyes looked at him with such coldness and indifference. As if the person in front of him is a different species from him. The citizen and guard watching this felt really disturbed and afraid, but they cannot take their eyes from Sebastian and what he does. The reformist nods again and now with tears streaming out from his face.

  Sebastian shot a lot at Dalia like before. “Please heal our dear friend here.”

  The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

  Dalia lifted her shaking hand towards the Reformist. “Y-you’re not going to slap him again… right?”

  Sebastian looked at the guy in front of him. Tears running out from his face and snot bubbling from a flat nose, his mouth was bleeding and barely could form a sentence at all.

  “This guy is the one-shot arrow at you.” Sebastian said as he touched the guy's cheek. “Do you forgive him, Dalia?”

  Dalia swallowed her spit down her throat. “Y-yes. Please just ask him a question, he’s already told you he wanted to talk.”

  Sebastian let go of his touch and said, “Alright let’s hear what he wanted to tell us.”

  Dalia healed the guy again and Carlos finally let go of his binding. The reformist immediately grabbed Sebastian's feet and began to prostrate by kissing it. He was shaking hard and his spirit seemed broken. If it wasn’t for Dalia asking the question, Sebastian would torture this man far longer. He felt like directing his anger at something really calmed the burning sensation that was raging inside his heart. He knew that it wasn’t a healthy way to deal with his emotions, but he at least managed to be calm and didn't last out like an animal.

  “Now now.” Sebastian said as he kicked the guy away from his feet. “Now tell me, what’s this Reformist thing I keep hearing about.”

  *

  Constantia stood on top of the wall, seeing the destruction that she caused. The reformist grew each passing day by converting and forcing everyone who doesn’t follow their new heretical order. However, there’s not a single sign of the prophet anywhere. She and her team have been searching the whole city, even going back to outer city to investigate the church area. But they found nothing, he disappeared like a smoke.

  While the city is drowned in blood and smoke starts to fill up the skies. Cardinal Faust still refuses to contact any outside help. If people learned that his city is being destroyed by a heretical movement, he can’t imagine the fallout from that situation. This in turn, gave even more momentum for the Reformist. Now they’re already besieging the inner-city gate and finding a way to get in. but luckily the inner-city guards managed to hold them in line despite being severely outnumbered.

  Constantia is contemplating her next movement. Killing Ipsilas is the number one priority of their mission. Even if they need to sacrifice the inner city for that goal, they’ll do it in a heartbeat. But the problems lie with the heretical movement itself. Losing such a valuable city to them would be a devastating blow to the church reputation, not to mention that if they managed to take over the city, this whole place would become a stronghold for their new faith.

  The wall of this city is thick enough to withstand a magical barrage and the port access would allow them to smuggle food and supplies if siege warfare happened. Constantia's mind is now torn with this information, this is different from Isildus where it was a Corsican City and Avignon is the church land albeit co-ownership with the Francia kingdom.

  “Could he have already left the city?” she murmured.

  “Impossible,” said Antonius. “A movement this large doesn’t survive without a leader.”

  “The only place left is the inner city,” added Marcus. “If Ipsilas doesn’t show now… maybe he will if we open the final gate.”

  “Perhaps.” Constantia replied while rubbing her forehead. “His old ‘friend’ is in the inner city after all. Well, we can say that we’re also his old friend.”

  “Well, we are his old friends too,” Antonius muttered darkly.

  Marcus, chewing on a stale crust of bread, interjected, “Opening the inner gate won’t be easy. Captain Siegfried commands the defenses, and Faust’s bodyguard, ‘The Snake’—Ismail—is there too. Not to mention their elite guards.”

  “An elite force, I wonder where they’re before.” Constantia grumbled. “Turns out Faust uses them as the last line of defense. What an idiot.”

  “The news about the Saints has probably already reached The Prophet ear. If the tenets of their teaching and speech are true. They harbored resentment towards those three. The chance of him appearing before the Saints is high, but we can’t be certain.” Marcus said as he licked the breadcrumbs off from his finger.

  Constantia ponders the possibility of opening the inner-city gate. Captain Siegfried is indeed famous, but it’s not like he’ll survive getting attacked by three people. Ismail would be the most problematic one, he relies heavily on traps and poison, the whole tower is probably already full of booby-trap and many other deadly creatures inside. She didn’t bring any antidote or have any poison expert around, attacking him could be really risky.

  Not to mention the more experienced guard around the towers and gate, that’s another headache that she needs to think about. Opening the middle city gate is really easy, and Cardinal Faust concentrated his force on the backline; he probably thinks that as long as the inner city survives, he could rebuild the town from the ground up.

  Another question also popped out from Constantia's head. Why didn't Ipsilas come out and take over this city by himself? He’s more than capable to do that, this city won’t last a day if he directly participates. Was this some kind of his mind game and plan too, maybe he doesn’t want to be known to the world as ‘The Prophet’ for now while brewing another scheme behind the scenes.

  This whole thing feels strange and she doesn’t have any intel on any of these questions. Usually, every Inquisitor agent is always moved with the information they have and gathered throughout the mission, but now she feels like she’s running blind without any direction. She’s afraid that she might hit a wall if she keeps running blind like this.

  This whole thing feels really frustrating. Constantia felt like she wasn’t in control at all. She has no option besides keep pushing through with any snap decision that she makes. Maybe this is what Ipsilas wanted from her? Maybe he knew that she’s in this city with her team? She looked at Antonius and Marcus with suspicion. Maybe there’s a traitor amongst them? but she buried that thought deeply inside her heart. A renegade or traitor Inquisitor agent is unheard of, because they’ll be dead before they can even act on their betrayal. Not to mention for repentants like them, eyes always watch closely at whatever they did and will do.

  Constantia grabbed her spear tightly; her mind was in chaos and racing wildly inside. “we’re going to open the inner-city gate. But first we need to pay a visit first to the Cardinal Faust war room.”