CH675

Felth stared at the necklaces on the ground, conflicted. He was being offered a chance. A chance to finally break that cursed connection between the two of them, a chance to stop dancing in the palm of Ben’s hand, maybe even a chance to kill him if he was lucky enough. All chances he didn’t want to give up, only holding himself back out of fear.

He’d seen what Ben had done in the duel with his son and he knew at least of some of his accomplishments, enough to doubt how much of a chance they’d stand and Ben, hearing all of that while he probed the other’s mind, smiled.

“Of course, I’m sure you have your worries,” He told them. “I’m sure you’re worried about the chance you’d accidentally kill me, I am talking about a duel where I’d be drastically outnumbered but don’t worry Felth, I don’t actually believe you’ll be able to scratch me, let alone hurt me. If by some miracle you do manage to land a killing blow, the church of Myriad won’t react. We’ll respect the laws of the land here.”

Ben’s words only made the other apostle grind his teeth, but still he went on.

“And as for the safety of all of you, well, I promise you that not one of you will die in the duel because of me,” He said proudly. “With how far beneath me you all are, there’s practically no risk to yourself. Now, obviously, you’ll probably get hurt a bit but that’s another matter entirely. You all worship a war god, I’m sure you can handle a little bit of pain, right?”

Again his words only angered those around him, making them forget some of their fear, even as they tried to hold it in. No matter how obnoxious he was, they couldn’t let themselves be baited, leaving room for Ben to continue.

“And when it comes to weapons, well, you don’t need to worry about that either. You won’t be seeing me use the thing I nearly killed your demigod with or putting up a barrier either so you all have nothing to be afraid of on those grounds either. Really, there’s no loss for you by accepting this.”

“Unless your statue falls while we’re out there,” Felth told him, feeling like he’d seen where the trick lied, with Ben acting surprised.

“Oh, that? Well, although it would be a bit disrespectful to Myriad, if we do this then I’ll let the statue rest on the ground while we fight, nice and easy and won’t destroy anything as a result. Isn’t that kind of me? I’m giving you nothing to worry about here.”

“…And what are you looking for if you win?” Eneth’s apostle asked, with Ben’s eyes lighting up at the question.

“There you go Felth, didn’t even need me to prompt you this time either! Now, I’m just a little curious about if I’ll be able to store something in the statue is all. If I win, you guys let me shove it in there and we see how it works out for all of us.”

So that was his game, Felth could immediately imagine that whatever Ben was going to try and fit inside of the statue would only raise its value while destroying what little collective wealth that church still had, probably increasing the mana cost to keep it lifted as well. His goal was to financially ruin them even beyond what they’d already gone through, not that they had any real wealth left to give. Combined with the question of if they’d win at all, it was a risk he wasn’t sure he’d be willing to take no matter the reward.

But while he hesitated, others within the faith did not, standing by their apostle’s side and speaking up.

“Honoured Felth, we must do this,” One spoke in firm resolution. “For what dignity we have left if nothing else, we can’t keep letting this stand.”

“He’s right,” Another said. “Not just for us, we need to do this for the church as a whole! This is finally an opportunity to rid ourselves of this blight! We can’t let this chance slip through our grasp.”

“No matter how strong he might be, we have numbers on our side,” A third told them, not just speaking to Felth but the surrounding priests as a whole. “No matter how strong he is, he’s just one man. This, right now, is how we mark our names within our church’s history! By freeing ourselves of this monster, even if it costs us our lives!”

“Uh, I was serious about making sure I don’t kill any of you,” Ben chimed in, not having expected the surrounding priests to get so passionate and being ignored as they spurred themselves on.

“They’re right!” Another cried. “We can’t keep living like this! Living in fear of the next time the statue falls and the next time he returns! I’d rather die knowing I tried to save us than keep living with this evil hanging over our heads! It’s time we free ourselves from this nightmare!”

“…Okay, like, seriously, you guys do remember who originally started all of this, don’t you?”

Ignored again, one more walked over to the apostle, looking Felth in the eyes as he spoke.

“For whatever problems Ather had, he was one of ours. We can’t just let him go unavenged.”

“All of you…” Felth said, looking like he’d shed tears if his reptilian eyes would allow it. “And here I am, meant to be leading you. You’re right. All of you are right! No matter the odds, this is our chance to end things! This was always a threat we were going to have to overcome, if not now then when? We’ll do it! We’ll take him down here and now!”

He leaned down and picked up the necklace at his feet, all of the other priests around following suit, all to form a united front against their greatest threat. Not demons nor gods nor monsters beyond the veil, but Ben, who was more than a little conflicted about how smoothly that had gone.

I was really expecting I’d need to work them a lot more to make that happen but whatever. What’s done is done, time to beat up these assholes.

He liked to think he didn’t have a problem with most of Eneth’s priests beyond the god they were connected to but after hearing not only all of that but how firm each one was in their minds about trying to go for the kill, they were collectively testing his willingness to show mercy.

Maybe I’ll make this hurt a bit more than planned.

After bringing down the statue like he said he would and confirming there was nobody left behind in the church, Ben slipped out with the rest, spending a bit of his mana to seal the doors shut so no one would be able to get back in while he let the priests grab their weapons, all of them holding either spears or staves to match the properties of their god.

Spears, earth, and war, Eneth was one of the lucky gods with three domains he ruled over, being strongest in those aspects and it showed in those who directed his faith, with the ones who possessed the right affinities focusing on their magic and those who didn’t wielding their spears, leaving Felth as the one most proficient in both.

Not that Ben was worried. He was strong. He was so strong that he didn’t mind raising their competitive spirits even further with what he did next, looking at all of them prepared to fight as he dragged his foot in the dirt in the middle of them all, making a circle a meter across.

“There,” He told them proudly. “I won’t leave this once so it’s all on when you lot are feeling ready then.”

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He didn’t need to read the minds of the closer ones to see how ready to kill them they all were, their faces were more than enough, with Felth calling out.

“Call the duel to start already! You’ll see your arrogance can only go so far.”

“Sounds good, Thera, if you would?”

“I can’t believe I’m participating in this,” She muttered to herself before calling out for all to hear. “Bring the duel to a start already!”