Chapter 235 - Monster, Gods and Beings

"Ohh I won't need one, I'll be taking part in the prayers and cremations," Daisy informed Paul.

"Oh, you gonna be okay?" He asked looking concerned and with a flick of his hand one chair floated back and the chairs shifted together closing the gap.

"I think I'll be okay," Daisy answered with a forced smile.

"You don't need to do anything you're uncomfortable with." Paul tried to explain to her.

"No..... I feel I need to do this." Daisy answered bravely.

"Very well, but if it ever gets too much, there's no shame in backing away," Paul answered.

"I will." She smiled.

"So I heard you all encountered a strange monster and slew it." Paul smiled at Daisy and Grace.

"Yeah, we did, it was the strangest thing I've ever encountered," Grace answered.

"So what can you tell me about your encounter?" Paul questioned.

"Its regenerative and fortifying ability was very powerful!" Daisy answered Paul.

"Okay." Paul nodded.

"Ummm this might be a little presumptuous, but seemed to lack any sort of battle prowess, it generally responded to threats and attacks rather than preemptively attacking us or neutralizing stronger threats," Grace answered.

"Wow that's a very important piece of information, thank you." Paul nodded to Grace.

"We severed the head, there was no telling how many hearts that monster could have had and including its very quick and strong regenerative ability, I felt its head was the most effective and fasts way to slay it," Anna answered.

"It also seemed to spawn more tentacles at will when threatened," I answered.

"Paul do you know why it spawned?" Daisy asked.

"Not really but how did this creature come about?" Paul questioned back.

"It appeared when we made a prayer to Serra to bless this ground."

Paul began to wonder scanning his brain for any feasible answer or reason for this occurrence, "Sorry but nothing comes to mind, Divine and Necromantic stuff I'm not very knowledgeable on those schools, and even then those schools are weird and very secretive." Paul said shaking his head coming up with nothing a little annoyed at himself.

"So what reasons did Calista have for coming today?" I questioned Paul as the seating area for the ceremony began to slowly fill up and more benches were brought in.

"She wanted to use her wealth to help those in need, giving a very generous donation compensating those who were impacted," Paul answered.

"So she does have a soul or an ounce of good in her," I answered causing Paul to chuckle.

"I'm not gonna pretend, I honestly don't understand girls but I have warned her to back off the bullying. Just give her some time, she's had a difficult life herself up until now with the wrong type of people influencing her from a young age." Paul answered.

"Must be so hard to be born a princess and have everything given to you." I sarcastically answered back.

"It's not all rainbows and unicorns, you and I both know that individuals born into royalty have some sort of superiority complex embedded into them from a young age, as well as other people using you like a puppet to obtain more power and status. Please believe me, she's trying to change just give her some time." Paul tried to reassure me.

"Fine." I reluctantly answered him rolling my eyes causing him to chuckle and give me a couple of playful shoulder nudges trying o tease a smile from me.

Eventually, my rival Calista arrived with four heavily armored guardsmen in full plate armor flanking her like she was some sort of queen. "Thank you for your service." She thanked them as she arrived beside us.

"We'll be nearby Princess." One guard bowed with respect and with military-style gesture they split into two pairs and went opposite directions.

"Oh Hello Emilia, didn't realize you were here as well." Calista greeted me with a forced smile but her tone was clearly sarcastic and an obviously faked.

"Hello." I forced myself to smile while glaring at her.

"Thanks for letting me help today Paul." She thanked him taking a seat beside him.

"No problems," Paul smiled with a nod.

"If you don't mind, if anything else comes up which will help my situation could you please inform me?" She asked politely.

"Of course. I should also thank you for helping as well, I'm sure your generous donation help improve the royal families standing and reputation." Paul smiled.

"Are you sure I can't interest you in visiting the capital when we're on break?" She asked Paul.

"Sadly I have prior arrangements with the team." Paul politely declined her offer.

"Well, If you change your mind, let me know." She hesitantly replied.

"I will do." Paul nodded.

As the seating areas all began to fill up with royals and normal citizens alike the weather began to instantly calm, the breeze utterly stopped and the temperature somehow became a little less bitter. "Sorry guys but I gotta go." Daisy smiled and bid us all farewell except Calista.

"Good luck! you're gonna be awesome." Paul whispered to Daisy patting her on the arm for confidence.

"Did something happen to her last time she did something like this?" I questioned quietly and privately making sure no one else heard.

Paul waited for Daisy to walk further away from us a little before leaning in close, "You and I know she is strong mentally and physically, but the brain is a fickle thing and can easily be reminded of very traumatic events in the past. Ceremonies like this are one of the rare few things that have previously triggered a vivid reaction." He whispered.

"Is she gonna be okay?" I questioned a little worried.

"To be fair it hasn't happened for a while now, but a part of me still worries. She always tries to put on a brave face when I'm around." Paul answered.

"I think she's always like that, to be honest, you've taught her to become strong and independent," I answered him.

"I didn't do much, to be honest, it was mostly the church of Serra and Serra herself, but can you, keep an eye on her for me?" He questioned.

"What for?" I asked in return.

"Just generally, she seemingly recovered from it all so quickly a part of me still worries she hasn't properly dealt with her past." He answered.

"I'll keep an eye out, you really care for her don't you?" I smiled at him.

"You're lucky you weren't there, the horrible things they were doing to the children, even the mutations were horrible, mutating them into monstrosities, forcing us to dispose of them in cold blood. Some were so deeply scarred beyond my mind and memory magic could repair. Daisy was one of the lucky few, of all the one's we have saved only three survived, the rest committing suicide after a few days driven mad by something." Paul answered.

"What in the world?" I questioned in utter shock.

"I don't know myself all I know is that the cult worshiped some sort of ancient evil something that apparently predates the Gods even before 'The one' that made everything," Paul answered.

"The one?" I questioned.

"So ancient scriptures speak of 'The One' the first God that created everything and created all the other Gods thereafter. Somehow whatever they worshiped predates a being that created the begin of everything." Paul answered clearly as unsure and confused as I was.

"How is that even possible?" I wondered.

"I don't even know myself, from the scriptures we gathered all we could decipher was that one description," Paul answered.

"There's surely some magic that lets us understand other languages," I replied to him.

"That's the crazy thing, even the spell that allows us to read and understand all languages can't decipher the language, and this spell let's us understand Primordic, Infernian and Divine," Paul answered.

"What that?" I questioned curiously.

"Those are the oldest language that ever existed, Primordic are what the Elementals and Demons speak, Infernian are the language of Devils and their spawn and underlings speak, and finally as u can tell by the name Divine is what the language the good deities and their followers and children and creations speak," Paul answered.

"So... Daisy and people like us should be able to speak it?" I questioned.

"Ohhh sorry no, Divine creatures and beings, like angels and unicorns and such, but Daisy should be able to speak and understand celestial, a requirement to be a Paladin of Serra is to learn and study Celestial and some Infernal and Primordic." Paul answered.

"But why Primordic and infernal?" I questioned a little puzzled.

"Because Devils and Demons and things are the natural enemies of the Divine, so learning their language and identify their symbols and stuff is important." Paul smiled.

"Does learning the language corrupt you in some sort of fashion?" I kept questioning him.

"Not really, but learning the language also allows you to connect to beings that can corrupt or influence you, obviously they can do that without you knowing the language but knowing the language makes you more susceptible" Paul explained.

"That makes sense, so how about that ancient being?" I nodded.

"After that, we struck a dead-end so we just catalogued the scrolls into the forbidden part of the library and called it quits." He nodded.

"Did you stop them all?" I questioned.

"I wish I could tell you I did, but these cults don't operate under one organization. They are kinda just splinter group that operate under their own leadership so even I can't tell you how many cults there's are out there. That also doesn't include the type of cults that worsh.i.p.s other beings or deities." Paul answered.

"That's so messed up." I gasped in shock.

"Yeah, both a blessing and a curse when Gods and beings can influence, talk to and appear to individuals," Paul answered.

"Yeah....." I answered him.

"Didn't think of it like that ey?" He smiled finding my nativity cute.

"I guess so," I answered him back a little saddened.

"Yeah I know, back when we had simpler lives it was so easy to pay attention to our own lives," He smiled looking up into the sky. "But now I have the ability to make the change and help people, I try my best when can." He sighed but also looked a little happy or content.