The Godsfall Chronicles

Teal Ridge was a village situated in the south of the region, at the base of the sector’s largest mountain . Beautiful vistas rose all around the remote village, where there lived a population of simple and honest folk . They tilled their land, tended their groves, and hunted the fields – perfectly self-sufficient . For the last decade, they’d had little contact with the outside world . The stringent doctrines of faith and decorum were lax here, a place of rarely found serenity .

The village’s buildings and layout were exactly like any other elysian settlement, featuring beautiful craftsmans.h.i.+p and a tendency toward aesthetics . Of course, it wasn’t nearly as grand and complicated as the domain’s capital city . The spire-like dwellings were five or six meters tall only, spread out among six districts . They were fan shaped, interspersed with pockets of green and separated by roads . The districts curved around so that the whole village was arranged in a circle, like a plate . In the very center of the village was its only church .

The Church of Divine Brilliance was where Teal Ridge’s faith was centered . It was a place of prayer, healing, and sermonizing . This was a notable church throughout Skycloud domain, which enjoyed considerable influence . Devotees prayed to the G.o.ds of Light and War, and in fact the Knights of Splendor were an offshoot of their order .

A ten year old boy squealed with delight as he played with a pigeon outside the church doors . A man in whit clerical garb approached the child and smiled . “Caelum, you naughty thing . Obviously your sister still has a lot to teach you . ”

“Hey, I was looking for you! You said you wanted me to join the church, why didn’t you keep your word?”

“Don’t rush, now . You’re still too young . We can talk about it once you’re older . ”

The boy pulled a long face, displeased with the man’s answer .

The man in white gently shook his head . Caelum and his sister were the most talented children in Teal Ridge . His sister had shown an interest in the organization since she was fourteen and joined . Caelum was shaping up to be a fine boy himself, but having both brother and sister join at the same time was inappropriate .

When the clergyman thought back to their circ.u.mstance he felt a pang of worry . It’d been a month since they had any word from the Dark Atom . Word had come from the capital that their forces had been dealt a serious blow, but any specifics were hard to come by .

The man in white was a member of the Dark Atom, overseeing the organizations actions within the domain . The village’s Church of Divine Brilliance was their stronghold . Teal Ridge was an una.s.suming place few people paid any mind to, and the church especially made for fine cover . Working as a priest afforded him the prestige and cover he needed to perform his duties without fear, and had allowed him to operate in the village for a long time . Hundreds of new soldiers had been enlisted over the years and sent out to other towns . One day they would prove invaluable .

“Oh wow, look! It’s an airs.h.i.+p!”

He heard someone exclaim in surprise . Teal Ridge didn’t have docks, much less s.h.i.+ps to moor there . If someone wanted to travel by s.h.i.+p they would need to first make their way to the nearest city, making even the most humble airs.h.i.+ps a rare sight here .

Wars.h.i.+ps were completely different from their merchant or civilian counterparts . For starters they were quite a bit larger, and equipped with energy pylons they used for attack and defense . Once combat broke out, those pylons were used to create defensive s.h.i.+elds or fire bolts of energy . Obviously, neither merchant vessels nor traveling s.h.i.+ps had such things . As small as their village was, even merchant s.h.i.+ps hardly every crossed their airs.p.a.ce . So what was a wars.h.i.+p doing here?

“Caelum, go home . ” He took the child by the arm and looked him in the eyes . “Go home and do not go back out, do you understand? Don’t ask questions, just go . Now!”

He let go and the boy took off . Once the clergyman was sure the child would listen, he disappeared back into the church . Quickly he climbed the belfry, and began to chime the enormous bell within .

The wars.h.i.+p slowly descended through the chill mountain air toward Teal Ridge . When it got close enough, a burst of light shot out from it . Something struck the ground, a sort of cord . Soldiers bearing military-grade crossbows slid down the cord to the ground below and quickly took control of the area .

When had this sleepy hamlet ever seen something like this? The peaceful town’s serenity was instantly shattered .

“What’s going on?”

“What’s all this noise outside?”

“No time to explain . Gather your weapons and get ready to run!”

The priests were all gathered together . The eldest among then was in his seventies, the youngest only fourteen . A young girl . The man in white rushed pa.s.sed them to open up a secret chamber they had been using to conceal their weapons . The young girl watched the chaos with wide, worried eyes . “What happened?”

The clergyman pressed a gun into her hands . “You have to come with us . Keep yourself safe!”

“U-uncle, what about you?”

He shut the heavy door without giving her an answer . The others grabbed her and quickly set off down the secret pa.s.sage . From the other side of the door, the clergymen heard their footsteps retreated and he sighed in relief, but also pain . Thoughts of his own wife and child flashed through his head . For eight years he’d hidden here among the elysian people, built a family . Ties like those weren’t cut at a moment’s notice .

This church held too many secrets, including files on their many members . If they were found, then all was lost .

By now the wars.h.i.+p was hovering just over the church . A great light filled the nave, enveloping everything . Then, thirty figures appeared before the door of the church . They were all in different garb, not like normal soldiers . Most of them wore very recognizable armor .

Demonhunters!

The clergyman heaved the door shut and locked them .

His hands fumbled for the self-destruct controller, attacked to explosives set around the church . He pressed the b.u.t.ton .

The clergyman knew he would not escape, but at least he could cover the others while they made a run for it . At least he could destroy all the secrets hidden here . His wife and child were innocent and knew nothing of his actions . He felt sorry for them, for what he would have to put them through . All he could hope was that the elysians would let them live .

Cloudhawk lead Tartarus Squad to the place indicated by the intelligence report . When they got there, him and his crew were met with the unexpected view of a church façade . This was where the Dark Atom had been hiding . They’d turned it into a secret hideout, a testament to what they were capable of .

“Move it! Move it!”

“Quick, let’s go!”

His squad burst into action the moment they arrived . The church had become a den of spies, and once destroyed it was sure to cripple Dark Atom efforts throughout the domain . Tartarus Squad’s trainees were all eager to prove themselves and charged impatiently forward .

But Cloudhawk felt something wasn’t right . He stared at the church as the premonition grew, then waved a hand at the others . “Wait!”

He slowly raised his hand .  

Oddball fluttered its wings and rose into the air . Its round little body slipped through one of the windows, and found that the inside of the church was empty except for a single man in white . The bird’s keen eyes saw strange marks all over the inside; on the walls, the pillars, and the floor . Its sharp hearing picked out the sound of dripping water . A bomb, a Dark Atom explosive . The terrorist knew they’d been found out and were going try and take his people out with him .

“This place is covered in explosives . The second we walk in they’ll go off . ”

“Captain, we haven’t gone in yet . How do you know?”

“Cut the s.h.i.+t! No one move!”

Cloudhawk pulled the Gospel of the Sands from his clothes, then gently threw forward . It dissolved in midair, becoming countless grains of yellow sand . The grit gathered together into a humanoid shape moments later . At first it was obviously not real, but little by little the details emerged, and the sand golem bore the spitting image of Cloudhawk .

A sand clone? His squad mates looked on in wonder .

He’d used this power before in his fight against Drake, but it was the first time they were seeing it clear . What an amazing trick! His clone strode cautiously into the church and delivered a single sentence . “You don’t need to fight . ”

The clergymen looked calmly at the masked man as he stepped inside . He didn’t say anything, there was nothing that needed saying .

The two had different beliefs, even different values . What could be said to change that? Now that he was here, the clergyman didn’t regret his path . Revolution required sacrifice, and it was the efforts of thousands before him that the fires of insurrection still burned to this day . The fires weren’t strong enough yet, but one day it would grow to be an inferno, and a new world would rise from the ashes .

“Long live the Dark Atom!”

The G.o.dly statues, painted ceiling, carved pillars, and polished floors all erupted at once . The h.e.l.lish flames swallowed the man in white first, then surged like a stampede across where Cloudhawk stood . The explosion blasted the windows and sprayed shattered gla.s.s all around . Flames reached from the cavities like hands groping from the abyss of h.e.l.l . The trainees outside were struck by a wall of heat .

Everyone hit the floor, but the explosion still knocked the breath out of them and made their heads spin . A few of the weaker wounds sustained minor injuries .

They stared at the smoldering wreckage, disbelief on their faces . How could they have packed so many explosives in that church?

With ashen faces the trainees picked themselves up off the ground . The church and everything around it had become a lake of fire . The only thing that survived was a wisp of sand, which floated by on the wind and gathered in Cloudhawk’s palm . It reformed into a metal-bound book with scenes of the desert on its cover .

“It’s a good thing the captain stopped us . ” Felina’s heart was still racing . “Otherwise there wouldn’t have been anything left of us . ”

At roughly the same time, Frost de Winter was waiting with a fleet of airs.h.i.+ps nearby .

He slowly opened his eyes . “It’s time . They’ve likely begun . Let’s see for ourselves . ”

An aid from the Cloude family stood by his side . “Sir, I don’t think we should . We were instructed to wait here for h.e.l.l’s Army to clear the area, then go in . If we go in now we might reveal the army’s existence . ”

“Don’t worry, I’m not bringing all of our troops . Just a few men . ”

“Sir-“

“I suspect h.e.l.l’s Army isn’t performing the mission as instructed . I must see matters for myself, isn’t that what’s expected of a commander?” As Frost slowly rose to his feet, a carpet of frost spread out beneath him . He looked out in the direction of Teal Ridge, and a smile crept into his lips . “Call that new fellow . ”

The Cloude family servant had to obey .

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