World Online

Jake dropped everything and rushed to Father Joseph's side.

Ganshin was also by his side, holding his hand.

"Why did you do this, Father? There had to have been another way. You didn't need to trade your life away for this." Ganshin said, his voice trembling.

"I knew this would happen before, young sword master." Father Joseph chuckled, but his voice gave away, the struggle in just talking.

"His Divine Brilliance told me. I hoped that he was wrong, but he is never wrong."

"But this was a conclusion that I knew I would arrive to before the journey even began. I have come in terms with my age. I spent enough time on the ground. Time to go under." Father Joseph chuckled.

And as if on cue, the walls around them, the leaves that made them what they were, started to shake.

That was when Jake realized as he looked to the side, that there were others along with them. Others who had been watching the fight, and quite possibly, helping Gashin take care of all of the beasts that had risen.

Many of them also rushed toward Father Joseph, who had just given up his life for this noble cause.

"Father! How could you do this? The church without you, it will never be the same!" Sister Annie rushed with tears in her eyes, sobbing as she fell onto Father Joseph's arms.

"Don't worry, my child. This is just a forgone conclusion that was mean to happen. But that doesn't mean that our work here is done." Father Joseph coughed as he spoke and he raised his weak, veined hand and pointed to Ganshin.

"The stone. Bring it out. We must purify it before any others covet it." Father Joseph said.

"Father! If you use any more power, then you are sure to-"

"My life is nothing compared to the lives that will be lost if the evil beasts follow you across the border in search for this evil stone!" Father Joseph barked.

Everyone shut up immediately, and Ganshin meekly took out the stone that was within the wooden box.

"Rosmary wood. Perfect to hold it in, but look at the box already. It has been a mere few minutes since you put the stone in the box, and it has already cracked, unable to withstand the power of the evil stone." Father Joseph said as he struggled to get up.

Jake recognized that, and he immediately crouched forward, giving his hand to support Father Joseph's back.

"Haha! Young Baron. Did you like the gift that I have given you?" Father Joseph smiled as he looked at Jake.

"That was the reason that I was able to stay alive till now, Father. I owe my life to you." Jake smiled and said.

"Well, that was a gift that you would have gotten regardless of what was going to happen. A gift that you should get if you are in the second tier." Father Joseph said, all knowingly.

"Now then, all the priests. Get ready for this. Once this is open, beasts of all calibers will sense its presence. Until now, no one did anything because the ninth and the lich king were here. But now, things are different." Father Ganshin said.

"Understood, Father." The priests and poresteses here all nodded.

They had their bibles in their hands, all of them opened, and ready to chant.

Ganshin looked solemn, and opened the box before him carefully.

Wooosh!

A cold wind swooped by them, chilling their very hearts. That was quite literal. Jake could feel his left chest paining a little, as if his heart was slowing down.

"Now! Don't stop doing a thing! We cannot let the stone communicate with any other evil beast!" Father Joseph said.

And as he said this, his eyes felt a little weird.

Jake could see that his eyes no longer had any pupils within them. They were completely white, and slowly turning into gold.

These golden eyes started shedding light onto the stone, and this light that completely basked the gray and black rock made Jake's skin crawl.

The reason wasn't the light itself. The light made Jake feel warm. But when the light came into contact with the crystal, it was like the sound of chalk on a black board. Except, the chalk didn't exactly cooperate much.

The screech was so loud and high pitched that most of the swordsmen there closed their ears instinctively.

But not a single priest or priestess stopped. Instead, their chants basked the rock in even holier light.

Jake could see that the rock was slowly changing. It's gray exterior didn't change a single bit, and even if it did, Jake couldn't see it. But the black within, which was abundant before, started to diminish.

At first, the decrease was marginal, and it looked like this was a process that was going to take a few hours at the least.

But then, it became more and more rapid. The holy light seemed to compound, and the priests were having an easier time than what Jake expected.

"That doesn't make sense. Why would they have an easier time? This is a hard core evil artifact, one that on of the nine coveted so much. To purify this, it should take a few days to begin with, not a few hours." Jake suddenly realized.

"Even with a sixth tier -"

As Jake was looking at Father Joseph, he froze. Right before his eyes, he could see not a Father, but rather, an old man about to step into his grave,

Wrinkles covering his eyebrows even, with not a single strong of hair left on his face, including on his eyebrows, the person who stood here was not Father Joseph anymore.

His eyes seemed to grow weaker, with even that golden light he was giving off getting dimmer and dimmer.

"He is trading his life away for this!" Jake understood.

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