Strange.

  It felt strange to be honest.

  A moment ago, I was in pure ecstacy, involuntarily, curled up inside a cocoon with no way out.

  At that moment, I felt no pain nor stress, just bliss.

  But now?

  Pain.

  Every single inch of my body was inflicted with pain beyond my tolerance.

  It wasn't from my injuries, I was perfectly fine, perfectly healed.

  It came from deep within.

  A churning dull ache, uncomfortable, I resisted the urge to end it here, death seemed really courtable this moment.

  The wooden surface of the cart wasn't helping it either.

  I laid still, staring at the leaves above with dull eyes, a man sat on a rock beside the cart as he kept a close eye on me.

  I was rescued.

  By the church.

  Not good.

  I felt the man leaning his back against the cart as he spoke nonchalantly, "You know, your condition is really weird for someone who was sacrificed."

  Sacrificed? And I'm still alive?

  That was a suprise.

  A joyful suprise.

  "The church has taken quite an interest in you."

  A hateful suprise.

  After that he went quiet, leaving me alone with my thoughts.

  Now what?

  The church has taken an interest in me due to my current condition.

  Which means I won't see the light of day again.

  Who knows what those zealots would do if they get their hands on me.

  And I was sacrificed?

  Sacrifices are customs practiced with all sorts of gods, whether good or bad.

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  Although, human sacrifices are only accepted by those evil ones.

  There is only two outcomes in a sacrifice, death or a fate worse than death.

  The latter is that, you would be turned into a corrupted beast or creature.

  The former is just death, a painful one.

  I sighed, atleast tried to, the dull ache started from my chest area and spread towards my limbs.

  Speaking of sacrifices, what the heck was that?

  A dream? Vision? Hallucinations?

  Forest of the huntress? Feasting upon a god?

  I don't know.

  I saw the whole event from my own perspective.

  It felt crude.

  A crude made-up story, fairytale.

  It felt rushed, incomplete, filled with doubts...

  And how did he, I, realise it was a god?

  And how did he, I, managed to eat a god?

  Questions with no answers felt uncomfortable.

  Dammit.

  I just stared at the leaves, I had no other options as of now and even if I tried to move I can't.

  The pain doesn't allow it, the pain coming from deep within my soul.

  I wasn't completely unscathed after all.

  Either it was a soul injury or something else.

  What was 'something else' supposed to mean?

  I don't know, I'm not all-knowing.

  Whatever.

  I shut my eyes close, there's still time, they have something else to do here according to what this guy told me.

  So I should just rest up and regain my energy.

  Frustrating.

  But I have no other choice.

  The cold hard wooden surface did nothing to help, the unnerving silence and unnatural breeze made my spine tingle with uneasiness.

  I sighed and closed my eyes, waiting for the darkness of sleep to embrace me once again.

  I'm too tired to worry about reality right now.

  ********

  I sat on a hard rock while leaning against the wooden cart, it was cold to be honest and the temperature was noticably dropping.

  I was bored, the forest was creepy as it was and being alone here with a half-dead man with me was a liability.

  Speaking of the half-dead man, he was cozily sleeping on the cart, completely lost in his dreams.

  All alone.

  Leaning against the cart was uncomfortable, my head was lying on one of the corners and to be honest I was too lazy to even move.

  What can I say?

  I'm just like this, lazily rotting away.

  A piece of parchment was loosely held by my hand, it was a letter, an order given by the church.

  It was filled with fancy words and all but the objective was clear.

  Hunt them down and burn the forest to the ground.

  Which was quite easy if you ask me.

  After all, they have sent out two blessed ones of the goddess after all.

  One being me and the other...

  My sister, Estelle.

  She was currently leading the extermination mission while I was guarding the survivor.

  He won't be a survivor for long though.

  He will either die or...

  There's no other option.

  He just dies.

  Either by our hands or due to the sacrifice.

  After all, his soul is getting corrupted.

  According to our observation, it seemed to be the case.

  He is being turned into a mindless corrupted creature as time passes.

  Failed ones of divine.

  He is slowly getting corrupted, it was very slow, nothing like the previous ones, an anamoly.

  Intriguing indeed.

  The church has taken an interest in him now.

  That's the only reason his head is still connected to his neck.

  To become either a corrupted beast or a blessed one, you have to perform a ritual.

  Not a sacrifice, a ritual.

  No...scratch that, corrupted beasts could also be obtained from sacrifices.

  Only cults do it though, their sacrificed victims will get corrupted and go on a rampage.

  The churches don't do that, any god's faction that is considered 'good' doesn't do that.

  It's not the inability to do so, it's the fear of reputation.

  Many corrupted creatures have emerged due to rituals, they were the ones who failed their test to become a blessed.

  It's not their fault to be honest, it just meant that they were not suitable to hold divinity.

  The churches have concealed their cases of such corrupted beasts, most were slayed while others...

  Were still kept alive, either due to their abnormal features or for research.

  This man right here could be considered to have an abnormal feature.

  From what we observed, he is more close to a blessed than a corrupted.

  However, it doesn't mean he won't turn out to be a corrupted beast.

  It just meant that the process was gradual.

  But it will certainly happen.

  I sighed, maybe I should've exchanged places with Estelle, if this man suddenly turned into a corrupted beast it would be troublesome.

  It would be troublesome to leave my current position, I have gotten used to the sharp wooden corner against my scalp, it just felt good.

  A corrupted beast is easy to handle, atleast for me.

  As I was deep in my musings, a certain noise snapped me back to reality.

  -click-

  A clicking noise, like droplets of water dripping onto a water's surface, however, this one wasn't due to water.

  -click--

  -click-

  -click-

  The noise continued in quick succession, it came from all sides, even the sky didn't seem safe.

  Even the ground, it was trembling...

  Hallucinations?

  It felt weird to look at the trembling ground.

  I sighed and stood up, I gave a glance at my metal gauntlets, spikes stuck out from the knuckle areas.

  A brass knuckle gauntlet.

  I then glanced around the forest, at every tree, every bush, everything.

  But I found nothing.

  And the next thing I knew was that, they weren't on the surface...

  A late realisation.

  At the very next moment, the ground shook and teared open a small but deep trench, I lost my footing and fell deep into the darkness.

  As I was falling through the darkness, the clicking sounds grew and they felt closer.

  Way too close.

  Way too close for my liking.

  I sighed as I was falling, maybe Estelle was better for this after all.