A Flower Blooms - A Prologue To RtW

The next day, Zero and Max were walking down the hallway in silence, though Zero seemed tense while also afraid. She was preoccupied with something and Max noticed the girl's hesitation to speak.

"Zero, what is on your mind?" Max asked.

The white haired witch was wringing her hands in nervousness. After a few moments, she finally answered. "The book I read yesterday described some shocking, almost unbelievable things. Is it really the case? The enemy described was so terrifying. Do we really have any hope?"

The bishop's face turned stern. "The path ahead will not be easy. That is why we must grasp every advantage we can if humanity is to survive the coming struggle. That is our mission. And you are a part of that."

"I understand. I will try to do my best," Zero said.

"Good." The two of them reached a room, outside of which stood two guards. Max waved aside the guards, and they entered. Inside the room there was a prisoner chained to the wall.

"Here is the first thing you can do to help us." Max motioned to the man. "We have a prisoner here that we need you to extract some information from. He is part of a bandit group that has been raiding caravans around Hermes plateau. So far, we have been unsuccessful in finding where they have been hiding."

The prisoner lifted his head up. "I already said, I am not telling you anything."

"As you can see, we will need to know what he knows, by some other means," Max said. "Now it is up to you. Be careful, this will be your first opponent who will resist, so you must put your all into the battle"

The prisoner looked up in confusion. Then, his whole world changed. He found himself no longer within confinement, but rather in the outdoors. He looked around, soon recognizing the area around him as being the village he grew up in.

He teared up slightly as the memories came back to him of his early childhood. It had been a carefree time, where daily life was predictable and routine. He had several good friends who he had grown up with. But those times were in the past. An infestation of pests had destroyed the village's crops, and food had become scarce. So, he and his friends had joined a small bandit group. But he was captured by the Judgement Army that patrolled Hermes and he was brought in for an interrogation.

The man suddenly paused in his thoughts. Something wasn't right. He was in the midst of being questioned when a white haired girl had entered the room. And suddenly, he was in his hometown, where there was no one around. The entire situation was absurd. How could he have been moved here in the blink of an eye.

Suddenly, the bandit felt a sharp pain in his c.h.e.s.t. Looking down, he saw a sword protruding out, having sunk in through his back and out his front. The sword was dragged out, leaving another large cut in his side. As he fell to the ground, the last thing he saw was the white haired girl standing over him holding a bloody sword.

However, he wasn't dead. When the man awoke, he looked down at himself and saw that his wounds were gone. But the fight wasn't over yet. His opponent had spotted him and was coming to attack him once more.

The bandit's thoughts went into a flurry of activity. Whatever was going on, he should be trying to survive. He needed something to defend himself with. He needed a weapon.

The bandit suddenly found himself holding something which felt familiar in his grasp. It was the saber that he had used, lost to him after being captured. How he had it now was a mystery. But this was no time to ponder such questions. Raising his blade, he swung forward to block Zero's attack.

Zero moved, avoiding the attack while bringing her sword back. A moment later, she stabbed forward again, leaving a small cut in the man's side as he tried to avoid the attack. The man swung back, sweeping his blade horizontally. Zero ducked under the strike, before slashing her sword upwards toward the man's c.h.e.s.t.

This time, her opponent responded quickly, managing to use his saber to block the attack. Zero was pushed back by the counter, but she took one hand off her sword as she allowed herself to move backward. In the empty hand, a throwing knife appeared. It took only an instant, and in that brief moment the knife was thrown, stabbing into the bandit's neck.

He fell, reviving a few moments later. He felt tired, very tired, but even so he stood up once more.

"Witch." The man's eyes widened in realization. "You are a witch. To think that the church itself employs the devil's agents." He laughed. "Truly there is nowhere that evil doesn't reach. For all that you may condemn me for what I have done, what would others say of you if they knew. Would you not be condemned even more harshly? And the church itself be condemned for its association with you?"

"No." Zero walked forward with her sword pointed toward the man. "I do what is needed, what is right. It is true that people will never know of our contribution, but that is of no concern. A man like you wouldn't understand what is at stake here."

Zero moved to finish off her opponent. However, the man blocked the hit.

"Why will you not surrender?" Zero asked. "It will make it easier on us both."

"I don't understand any of this," the man said. "I don't care about it. But I won't submit to you."

The bandit put up a desperate struggle in his final moments, but ultimately he died.

***

"What have you learned," Max asked.

Zero was sitting silently as she brought the memories of the man she just killed up to the surface. After a few seconds, she answered. "The group numbers about three dozen hiding in a cave along one of the cliffs surrounding the Holy City. It is a few dozen miles to the southeast. The cave can only be accessed through a narrow path along the cliffside that only one man could fit along at a time. And the path is attackable from above. It will be very difficult to break into."

Max finished writing down the information. "Ah, I know what you are describing now. Thank you for your help. Do you feel able to use your ability again today?"

"Yes, I don't feel too tired yet," Zero said.

"Very well then. Let us move onto the next task." Max stood up and led Zero toward a nearby room.

"There is one more aspect of your ability that I would like to test. When you defeat your opponent in the battle of souls, you will gain their memories and skills. But what about, magic power?" Max stopped outside a room, not yet opening the door. "That is to say, if you absorb a witch, will you gain her powers?"

Zero stopped suddenly. "Do you mean to say, that I might be able to take the abilities of other witches?"

"Whether it is possible will be something we will have to see," Max said. "That is why today we will have you use your ability on a witch."

After a few seconds, Zero finally replied. "I will do my best then."

"Good. Prepare yourself now." Max opened the door and the two of them stepped into the room.

There was a girl, only slightly older than Zero, chained to the opposite wall. The moment the door opened, she looked up and snarled. "What do you people want now? Are you going to preach to me about your imaginary God, thinking that I will repent or something? I haven't done anything wrong, and I want nothing to do with your people and you can all go die for all I care."

Then, the chained witch spotted Zero. Her eyes narrowed. "Are you a witch? What are you doing here?"

While Zero stood in silence, Max went up to the girl and took off the God's Stone of Retaliation around her neck. As Max walked away, the witch began struggling against her chains.

"Now Zero," Max ordered.

With the aura of the stone no longer blocking her ability, Zero activated her power and entered into the body.

The Soul Battlefield turned into a plain village. Zero was quickly able to locate the location of her target from the shouting coming from that direction.

"What did you do to me? You damn traitor! Let me out of here."

Zero created a sword in her hand as she walked toward the source of the noise. Finally, the witch came into view.

The witch turned and saw Zero. "Why are you doing this, betraying your fellow witches? You should help me and we can get away from the damn church."

Zero paid no heed to the words, running forward and decapitating the witch.

The witch resurrected a short distance away. Rather than try to speak this time, she immediately started running.

Zero chased after, but just before she reached her opponent, a tree suddenly sprung up in front of her. She crashed into the tree, falling to the ground dizzy.

The witch had picked up some acorns and was pushing them into the ground. They began instantly sprouting into m.a.t.u.r.e trees as the magic power made them grow instantly. By the time Zero got back on her feet, there was a ring of trees shielding her opponent. Zero tried to cut through the trees with her sword, but was making little progress.

Suddenly, an arrow flew out of the ring of trees, narrowly missing Zero. The other witch had finally discovered that she could create items in the Soul Battlefield, though she was not skilled with the use of a bow.

Zero quickly backed up out of the range of the arrows as she pondered her next move. Her opponent was holed up in a defensive location, and Zero was unable to break in on her own. She needed something to help knock down those trees.

A massive construct appeared next to Zero. It was the Demon's spear thrower, the pictures for which she saw yesterday. When it launched its projectile, the trees in its path were instantly blasted apart into splinters, and the witch hiding behind them was killed instantly.

The witch reappeared. She was on the ground gasping, the death she just suffered having taken a toll on her. Zero walked up to her, raising her blade in preparation to deal the final blow.

"Damn.. .you…" the witch spat. The blade came down, slicing off her head.

***

Max brought out a potted plant. "Zero, try to see whether you can use the ability of the witch you just defeated to make this plant grow."

Zero brought her hands up to the plant and began concentrating. She knew how the ability worked and how to use it from the memories she just gained. However, despite emulating the process exactly, nothing happened.

"That is a shame," Max said. Inwardly though, he was somewhat relieved. If Zero was truly able to collect the powers of all the witches she defeated, she would become far too powerful and the church would have a very hard time keeping control of her.

Zero was disappointed, but it seemed that there was more on her mind than just that. "Was this really necessary? At the end of the day, she just wanted to live peacefully before she had been captured and taken here."

Max put a hand on Zero's shoulder. "Power is dangerous, and she was unwilling to dedicate herself to what needed to be done. Do you know what is the difference between you and her? You work for a greater goal, while she only cared for things regarding herself. You have accepted God and dedicated yourself to serving him. That is what separates those witches who are enlightened from the corrupted ones who will only endanger the world."

"I understand. I just wish that more could be saved," Zero said.

"Only a select few will be able to have the will to accept salvation," Max said. "Tomorrow, you will meet some new people. They too are witches who serve the church. Now that you are ready, I will introduce you to them."