FVN Chapter 313: Elmea's church
Chapter 313: Elmea's church
a thousand years ago, the giamut empire was already established on the north of the central continent.
there, a young emperor was instated.
with time, that emperor gained the moniker of the dreadful emperor.
in the current day, even the people of giamut still call him that, showing just how terrible his reign was.
the empire already controlled the largest part of the continent at the time, but the dreadful emperor took over the rest of the continent.
that created a terrible time for non-human races.
the dreadful emperor believed humans were the superior race, oppressing all other races living in the central continent.
the highly skillful dwarves, and the long-living elves who used spirit magic detested that reign, so they left the continent.
the civilization that remained when they left crumbled apart with time, and a thousand years later there is hardly a trace of them.
even the giamut empire knew how useful the dungeons in their territory were, but their systems saw scant use.
that was also the reason why the history of the dungeons stopped a thousand years ago too, which allen noticed while taking history lessons in the academy.
the races that did not leave the central continent back then, all received harsh treatment from the empire.
beastmen were the ones who were oppressed the most, though that gave rise to a resistance movement.
that movement was the creation of the adventurer's guild and the church of elmea.
the adventurer's guild made it a point to work independently from the government, focusing solely on protecting people from monsters.
that also meant they were against the oppression of other races, eventually standing up against the empire and moving their head office to another country.
some time later, when the dreadful emperor passed away and the situation in giamut calmed down, they returned the head office to the empire.
the church of elmea's beliefs and philosophy stood on polar opposites to the dreadful emperor's, so they opposed his reign as well.
they believed in the god elema, who created everyone equally, so they preached kindness to others.
because of those principles, it was common to see non-human races visiting their church.
there were priests who were from other races as well.
and since elmea was the god of creation, there were devotees all around the world.
since they believed in kindness above anything else, they stood at odds against the dreadful emperor.
unlike the adventurer's guild though, there were only a small number of holy soldiers, and only a handful of priests knew how to fight.
that led to most of the priests of elmea's church being oppressed like the other races, and a lot of blood was spilled.
the giamut empire had started on the northern side of the continent before spreading, so the church escaped south, and kept going south, eventually crossing the sea and forming a country that later would play an important role in establishing the confederacy.
that country was called the holy land, elmaleh.
their first settlement grew to become the capital city of theomenia, where they were free to express their faith in the god of creation elmea.nôv(el)b\\jnn
but unlike the adventurer's guild, once the dreadful emperor passed away, they did not return from theomenia back into giamut.
the main reason was that the rule of emperors or kings did not align with the beliefs of their church.
while they did build many churches to share their religion, the central continent was populated by kingdoms and empires, so they remained in theomenia.
a thousand years later, the holy land continued to prosper as a country.
but the giamut empire eventually instigated a civil war, splitting the territory apart.
"that's so horrible."
cecile said, sitting behind allen.
they had gotten rid of most of the pagan worshippers that had broken loose in the holy land, and early in the morning allen's party had departed towards theomenia.
now they could see the current state of theomenia, the city that had stood for a thousand years, carrying and holding a multitude of prayers.
unlike the gorgeous and elaborate buildings in the baukis empire, theomenia had been built with wood, water, and stones.
the fire that plagued the city had already died out, but the trees of the city had all turned to ash, the stone buildings charred black, and many buildings had already collapsed.
there was a large amount of pagan worshippers loitering in the streets too, their movements erratic making it hard to discern whether they had any free will or not.
allen's gaze was fixated in the center of the city.
they first heard that story about freya when they went to the baukis empire, looking for the master craftsman habarak to make orichalcum weapons, and had seen its effect as well.
they had only heard about the diving artifact being stolen half a year prior, but for the last two or three years the goddess' power had been on a decline already.
after the passage, they entered a larger room.
"are you the demon general lycaoron?"
(he looks like a lycaon beast, and i'm pretty sure demon generals are evolved demons.)
thanks to merus' return, they had also learned of the relationship between demon generals and demons.
demon generals were demons that had lived for a long time and amassed experience and strength.
they were above a certain threshold of power, which separated them from regular demons.
to allen who still had memories from his previous life, he decided to think of it as the way dolphins and whales are separated.
in technical terms, if the sum of their stats was greater than 10000 they were demon generals, if not, they were just demons.
though after the arrival of the demon king many things had changed, and lately it was more common for the baseline to be 30000.
the exact reason for that change was unknown.
'yes, i'm the demon general lycaoron. ...i assume the first angel merus has joined you? i need to report that.'
the pale blue light behind him, the demon general answered.
he wore rather lightweight armor, and allen saw he was quite swift during his fight with merus.
the demon general associated the arrival of allen's party with his fight a few days before with merus.
merus had come back to challenge him again many times, trying to discover what kind of demon general he was, but merus had always lost the fight.
"what's that light?"
the light seemed to come out of a bonfire, which might be some type of magic artifact.
allen's first guess was that it was a type of altar to worship something.
allen did not start the fight yet.
he wanted to gather information first.
there were too many mysteries around the entire situation, so he prioritized that.
'heh, you really think i'd tell you? i know you're allen, master kyubel told me about you. apparently your brain works pretty well.'
the demon general with a lycaon face grinned, canine fangs exposed.
apparently he was unwilling to answer any questions.
or maybe he had been ordered to not tell allen anything.
(well, merus was also unable to gather any information no matter what he asked. i guess we'll just have to fight.)
"i see, guess there's nothing i can do about that. i'll just have to destroy it then."
'what?'
"now merus! destroy it!!"
'wha-?! how! it won't matter though!!'
merus suddenly appeared behind lycaoron.
and tried to destroy that mysterious but suspicious object.
the demon general had not expected the altar being destroyed while they were talking.
but speed was his main forte.
while merus flew straight at the altar with his fist struck forward, lycaoron leapt back and stopped merus' fist.
"your back is fully exposed."
'heh, but did your little plan work? you were too slow.'
while merus was trying to destroy the altar, allen jumped behind lycaoron trying to slice his back, but the demon general twisted his body and evaded the blow.
"ghah!"
and while still blocking merus' fist, he kicked allen on the stomach, sending him flying away.