Solar Mage

Chapter 13: Apostle

"So you weren't planning on freeing my father in the first place huh?"

My face expresses great rage.

"What do you think you're doing? I feel threatened. Dustin, subdue him."

The man sitting at the head of the table closest to me hesitates before slowly rises from his seat. He is a tall old man with a long white beard. Though old, his presence is intimidating.

Ugh. He must be a Swordmaster. I don't think I'll be able to beat him... I hope he's on my side.

He begins to unsheathe his white sword as he approaches me. I seemingly begin to roll up my sleeves to fight but when I finish rolling it up, Dustin immediately halts as he sees my arm.

Cardinal Agon is confused and leans to the side to see and figure out the situation.

"What's going on? Why'd you stop-"

He sees the mark of Pyro on my arm and is completely flabbergasted.

"You are- you ar-"

"I am the Apostle, yes."

He looks over to Jacob and stares angrily at him. Causing him to quickly exit the room.

"As the Apostle of Pyro, I am here to cleanse the corruption in the Church of Pyro. This is the divine mission given to me by Pyro."

"Im-impossible, there's no way you're the Apostle you probably just carved that mark onto your arm yourself. Y-yeah, that's right, the first Apostle didn't have a mark so it's impossible for you to have one you're obviously just trying to trick us."

"My will is the will of the goddess herself and I wish for the cleansing of her Church. If you still do not believe me then very well, how about this?"

I close my eyes for a while as I picture the symbol of Pyro. When I open them, the symbol of Pyro is engraved onto it and it emits a great light.

Tears begin to fall from the swordmaster's eyes.

"It was true, the Goddess has finally given us an Apostle!"

Agon begins to act submissive.

"It was my mistake, great Apostle, but perhaps you don't need to cleanse the church? We will definitely free your father and we will give you anything you want!"

"Anything you say?"

"Yes, anything!"

I grin

"Then I wish for the cleansing of this church!"

"It seems like my words are not getting to you. It is unfortunate that we would lose the first apostle to show up in three hundred years on the day of his arrival but so be it."

"Even if he's the apostle, he's still just Knight Ranked Swordsman, with my two 7th circle Cardinals and myself, a 6th circle mage, there's no way we would lose."

"And you,"

He looks at the high priest

"Get that pretty face of yours out of here unless you want to get hurt."

"R-right"

He runs to a corner and covers his head.

I stay calm and relaxed.

I knew he was too young to be the High Priest, so he was just a figurehead after all. He's right, even with my new powers, it would still be impossible for me to face a Grand Wizard, let alone two. But luckily, I won't need to fight.

"Alright, High Priest's safety, secured."

Agon says as he chuckles to himself.

"Dustin, get the hell out of the way if you're not going to help."

He disappears.

Wait, were my calculations wrong? I thought he was on my side!

As this thought finishes, Dustin seemingly teleports behind Agon and holds his sword to his neck.

"Wh-what do you think you're doing Dustin?

"I will not let you hurt the boy."

"And you two"

He looks at the two masked Cardinals.

"I'm holding your paycheck's life in my hands and you should know that two 7th circled mages cannot beat a swordmaster. Now leave.

It seems they were not the real cardinals but phew, thank god my calculations were right that could've ended poorly, not that it has ever been wrong in the first place.

The masked men creepily spoke in unison.

"It'd be in your best interest to pay us Swordmaster lest you wish to never sleep peacefully again. You know where to find us...

They said before they disappeared.

But wow, so this is the realm of a Swordmaster, I guess my master had always been holding back when he fought me. He's never gone that fast before.

"Dammit all, this is all your fault Arthur, I will make sure you are punished for this-"

The swordmaster knocked Agon out with the pommel of his sword and let go of him.

He then walked up to me and outstretched his hand.

"My name is Dustin Brave, Commander of the Holy Knights of the Church of Pyro. We've been waiting three hundred years for your arrival; it's a pleasure to meet you.

The high priest runs for the exit behind me in my peripheral vision.

I shake his hand and deactivate the Eye of Truth

"The pleasure's all mine."

I say as I knock the figurehead high priest out while I smile warmly at Dustin with my eyes closed.

"Great Apostle, is it true what you said, that you were going to cleanse this church and that the goddess gave you that task?"

I show discomfort.

"Yes, but there's no need to call me apostle

Dustin smiles as he cries tears of joy.

"So the Goddess hasn't given up on us! Oh praise Pyro!"

"Wait, if Pyro imparted a mission onto you, surely you must have spoken to her right?"

"Indeed."

"Praise Pyro! We must hold a feast to celebrate the coming of the Apostle!"

"Yes, but first, we must cleanse the church. We cannot reward those who are corrupt. Rally all the members of the Church."

Dustin's tears stop flowing.

Wow... Swordmaster's really are different from regular humans...

"Where should we rally them, Lord Apostle?"

"Hmm, what's the largest area within the Church?"

That would be the training grounds of the Holy Knights, Lord Arthur"

"All right, let's rally all the members of the church there. Let's call this event... an inspection."

"Very well Lord Arthur."

I told you, there's no need to give me such a grand title just call me Arthur."

"No way, I cannot address you with such ungratefulness. I must show respect to the savior of the Church!"

He looks at me with much anticipation and hope.

"Fine, call me whatever you want."

"Thank you Lord Arthur!"

Dustin leads the way as we begin to walk to the Task Room to announce the inspection for tomorrow.

"Is it all right to just leave those two there? What happens if they wake up and decide to rampage, destroying the temple?"

"There's no need to worry Lord Arthur, my shadows will take care of it. I recommend you get a few as well to take care of the smaller issues and to guard you while you rest.

I look behind me and see that the bodies of the figurehead and Agon are gone.

Hm, that's not a bad idea. Wait, before I forget.

I take the Sage System out of my clothes

Lets see if this is able to determine the status window of others.

"Sir Dustin, can you stand still for a second? I want to test something out."

He immediately stops and turns around.

"Of course Lord Arthur, anything for you.

Please work!

I look at the Sage System.

"Show me his Status Window."

"WHICH TYPE OF SCAN WOULD YOU LIKE? INSTANT SCAN, QUICK SCAN, NORMAL SCAN, ADVANCED SCAN, OR DEEP SCAN?"

Let's just go with a quick scan for now, so that I don't waste too much of sir Dustin's time.

I click Quick Scan.

"COMMAND RECEIVED"

The Sage System flies up to Dustin and begins it's scan. While Dustin is unable to keep his curiosity and discomfort concealed.

A second later, the scan is completed and the Sage System comes back and projects his Status Window to me.

***

STATUS WINDOW:

Name: Dustin Brave

Rank: Swordmaster

Strength: 2000

Stamina: 1000

Agility: 2000

Mana: 30000

Intelligence: 100

Active Skills:

UNKNOWN (NEEDS MORE SCAN TIME)

Passive Skills:

UNKNOWN (NEEDS MORE SCAN TIME)

Status Abnormalities:

None

Combat Rating: SS

Accuracy: 80%

***

Wow he is extremely strong, way stronger than I am at least.

"Um, Lord Arthur, is everything alright?"

"Hm? Oh yes, yes, you're very strong sir Dustin."

"Thank you very much Lord Arthur, I am not worthy of your praise. Well then, if your test is finished, I will continue leading the way."