A Path of Bone and Poison 87 Visions

The gates opened themselves as we approached. There was guards at the gates, but they only looked at us with curiosity as we entered the compound. Not bothering to stop or question us. They had a feeling similar to that of the girls in our party, but closer to that of the members of the shadow legion.

We did not bother to look around as we followed the cobblestone path up to the Temple. This is where the goddess had told us to come, so this is where we would go. The temple itself looked like the gothic architecture of english churches. It was beautifully designed. The biggest difference between earth's churches and this one was the symbolic features.

Their was no signs of Crosses rather the imagery was of scenes of battle. Every weapon was depicted, bows, swords, axes, mauls. The only thing was that there seemed to be a complete lack of magic users. There was not a scene of any wizards nor could there be felt the slightest bit of mana in the temple. It was almost as if the area was a dead zone to magical energy.

When invented the temple we were greeted by a priest. He was dressed differently from the one back in Slagstone city. I could not help but notice how similar the priest looked to the black garbed priests back on earth, but they had more of the feel of military cadet uniforms from anime. The male ones, she did not wear a skirt. It was a strange look when compared to how everyone else was dressed. Their black suits did not have a white collar, rather it was blood red, much like the mark on Hylia's face. There was also a vertical slash on their suits, that looked much the same as the mark.

The priests appearance is what had the largest impression on me. She had long flowing red heir and a self made marking on her face, similar to that which appeared on Hylia or the goddess of war. The mark had obviously been done with a blade, and been allowed to scar. The coloring was different, the dark tan color that most scars took on.

The women bowed when she met us, Not a bow of respect, rather the bow of a warriors greeting. She had placed a her right hand on the hilt of her sword that was hanging on her left hip. Her bow was slight, only moving a couple of inches, but it was noticable. We repeated the gesture, the goddess had long since taught us the proper greeting of her church.

The woman before us was the same age as we were, but her voice sounded extremely experienced. "Greetings Hylia and Yuri. Your journey must have been long. The goddess has long since told us of your arrival. If you will follow me the Bishop is expecting you."

We nodded as we followed the priest, she had made the rest of our party as well as the four boys remain behind. But they were kept in a comfortable room and given a light snack so there was no complaints from them.

We were escorted into the deepest parts of the temple, behind the area where the bishop and priests would normally hold their services. We went down stairs into the true area of the church. Large bookshelves filled the walls, each of them neatly organized with all of the knowledge a person could want.

Past the library was a series of rooms, there were not many, perhaps a total of 10. They seemed to be the living quarters of the priests. Half of the rooms had their doors closed, while the other half stood open. The rooms seemed unoccupied. They were simple rooms, yet they were rather large. They had a single bed that seemed large enough for two people, a closet and a desk. That was it.

I nodded as I looked at the rooms. The simplicity seemed exactly like what the goddess would like. Easy and efficient. She would not want her priests to have too many belongings as they would always need to be ready for battle.

We moved past the rooms into a large open area. The area had only two furnishings, one was a large statue of the Goddess of War. It looked exactly the same as every time I had seen her, and could at once notice that the priests clothing had been designed after her own.

Next to her stood a mysterious statue of a man. The statue had no face, and most of its head was obscured by a hood. He was holding a bow, the exact bow that Hylia now had. The bow was knocked with an arrow, with the bow pointing down.

I could not take my eyes off the man, I could feel my soul reaching out to the statue, as if it wanted nothing more than to become one with the statue. I could not help but fall to my knees as I stared at the statue. The rest of the room seemed to have disappeared as various images began to pop up in my mind.

A scene of the Archer staring down a skeletal goblin with a large red pointy hat. The goblin wore a set of black gloves over his skeletal fingers as he cackled insanely. Large groups of undead appeared behind him. Each of them much bigger than a regular human.

The scene slowly disappeared only to be replaced by another. The image was much more realistic than the last.

The archer was facing the goblin again. Only this time the goblin rode on a large skeletal Dragon. Green necromantic poison flowed from the dragons mouth as it used its breathe weapon to envelop the archer. The archers body was riddled in pain, but he did not give up. Arrow after arrow was fired at the goblin, most of them uselessly passing through the goblins skeletal body.

One managed to land a blow. This one pierced through the goblins eye socket, pulling something, with it as it burst through the back of the goblins skull. Pained began to radiate from my head and body as I witnessed the scene, pain far worse than I could ever hope to manage. My vision soon went black and all I could do was endlessly scream.

Chapter end