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“You sure know how to enjoy yourself Mister Leylin, but you are very surprising as well, who would have thought that in such a small time you would have such a meteoric rise in status. In just Five years, you turned from a simple recruitment to a Vice-Commander of the Order of Death and today you are going to become a Commander. I feel like recruiting you was the best decision I made. ” Rose spoked in a charismatic voice with a motherly smile as she looked at Leylin. Her eyes were slightly squinted because of her smile but paid close attention to him as she kept trying to read anything from Leylin expression, but he kept his neutral face.
Leylin calmly met Rose’s gaze and looked straight into her eyes. Leylin with his current power level simply don’t put this women in his eyes, but alas she is a master manipulator and also the person who took the mantle of being the eyes for the Second Pope so Leylin must show some respect and face towards his benefactor.
“You are exaggerating, it was because of the Church’s support and your guidance that I was able to reach this position. Even though I am very euphoric about another promotion but still I am also very pained about the loss of Commander Damien. Do you perhaps have any lead on the aggressor? ” Leylin asked with a straight face, he didn’t even bother to put up a facade of being sad or angry because he knows it’s isn’t an appreciated endeavor. Leylin never bothered to mask his feelings since he joined the Church, he actually took the initiative to expose his real identify because he knows that there is simply no value in being sneaky.
In actuality, Leylin knows that his unadulterated personality is more approved here. The Church has tremendous reach, it won’t be a good idea to be a dishonest person before them, as it would only raise their guard. Leylin’s true personality also assures them because they would rather have an arrogant loyal person than a conniving deceitful woodpecker.
“Unfortunately we don’t know! But there is an investigation team working to track the attacker, We ensure you that the Church would definitely try it’s best and give an appropriate answer to the Order. ” Rose spoke in a solemn voice, as the person behind her bowed his head in respect of the late commander. This place that Leylin is in currently is the Operation Headquarters of the Church and at the instant Leylin is in the Private room alloted for the Order of Death and the people around here are all people of the order itself including this one.
“That is reassuring to know.” Leylin nodded his head nonchalantly, He walked upto the gate and motioned Rose, ” Shall we?”
“Oh yeah, Of course. We can’t keep all the esteemed Lords waiting. Almost all of the higher ups of the Church are currently here to discuss tactics and deployment distribution and everyone will be very busy from now on, but before we go there let’s get you officiated as the new Commander of the Order of the Death. ” Rose explained the reason for the immediate summons and lead Leylin outside the Order’s location. As they walked, everyone who saw the duo respectfully bowed their head and greeted them.
“Greetings Cardinal Rose and Vice-Commander Leylin! ” A bunch of people in standard Church clothing bowed to show respect as they eyed at the two with a reverence filled gaze.
Leylin and Rose lightly nodded in greetings and continued forward. Rose took a side glance at Leylin’s face looking at his absolutely calm expression. She asked, “Don’t you feel great?”
“Excuse me?”
“I meant to say, this power and this position that you have. Don’t you feel intoxicated feeling their respect and reverence towards you. Doesn’t that give you a jolt?” Rose asked with a fascinated expression, she has seen a lots of youngsters but never one like this fellow. This much power in such a young age will make anyone boil with arrogance, and although Leylin has his own arrogance it’s more like his pride in his beliefs and a trust in his ability, it’s definitely not the same with what a normal genius would have. This is something that intrigued Rose alot, she also knew from her judgement and appraisal of him that he isn’t faking it either.
“Does it feels good eh? Yeah It does! Who doesn’t like respect and validation but I also cannot bring myself to be content with just this much. The respect I get stems from the power I possess, the fear I instill, the position I hold and the ability I got, so If I stop chasing these cause and start to admire the effects, then I would sooner rather than later will become obsolete. ” Leylin continued to walk as he engaged with Rose in some small talk, all the while he could literally feel her gauging and assessing him as if a test for his character. Leylin didn’t mind, this walk was longer than he thought so he looked around the humongous construction of the Headquarters and participated in a conversation with her.
Finally after a while of walking they reached an extremely guarded place, filled with defense mechanism and ferocious Knights guarding the entrance and within. This looked like a highly classified zone but with the help of Rose and her identify, they passed inside with great ease and after walking a very long fleet of stairs going downward they steeped inside an underground place.
Leylin looked around the layout, it was an underground cave. There wasn’t much artificial changes made to this place, it looked like an naturally made place. Leylin closed his eyes as could also feel his pours opening as a refreshing and an energetic force entered his body.
“Amazing isn’t it? This place is a natural resource and one of the greatest assets of the Church.” Rose explained as she saw Leylin fascination and surprise ” There! Can you see that pale green like fluid inside that small groove, this is what we are here for. That is called the ‘Heavenly Blessing’ and this is the place for the highest class of Baptism conducted inside all of the Church of Leviathan. ”
Leylin turned his gaze towards a little pond deep inside the cave, he could feel that the source of this force is definitely that fluid.
Baptism of the church is something that Leylin has previously heard a lot about, This is a procedure which is conducted to purify ones soul and assimilate them into God’s embrace and all that bullshit! but the one thing which snatched Leylin attention was the increase in strength one experience after this Baptism.
After inquiring and studying about this Leylin got to know that it’s a very old procedure carried out by the Church from since ancient time.
The Baptism is divided into three stages: First one is called the ‘Priests Blessing’ which is a profit oriented event in which, those who are not a member of Church or, are low level members could pay a huge sum of wealth after reaching a certain criteria of merits and contribution and book the spots for the opportunity. This is just a low-level baptism in which many Noble’s take intrest to increase their strength ever so slightly.
After so many years of having this techniques and culture in their hands, The Church obviously conducted some experiments and the outcome was the creation of the ‘Priests Blessing’ which is performed through cheap and weak resources providing a small boost to strength.
Above that is called the ‘Pope’s Blessing’. This is for the Holy knights of the church and those at higher position and has accumulated a lot of merits. They can exchange this honor in place of those contributions.
The last one is something which is inaccessible to an average person. It is for those at holding the position Cardinal level (the right hand of the Pope), Pope’s successor and those who reaches Commander level in any Order. This Baptism is an extremely holy event for the followers of Church and it’s called the ‘Heavenly Blessing’. It is also said to give the greatest rise in ability.
Leylin walked near the pale green water body and looked at it with a bit of yearning, even with his strength he couldn’t resist the temptation of this Baptism. His inner researcher was also agitated as he wanted to know the secrets of this solution.
‘I could feel it, if I were to go through with this then I can successfully step into the Hydro Phase without making use of any of the sentient force I ‘painstakingly’ collected from Damien, Rakim and all the others.’ Leylin looked at Rose with a contemplating gaze. Leylin knows that this chance is because of the Second Pope only, If it wasn’t for the tough time along with the Pope’s persistence towards the others, then they wouldn’t have agreed to invest such a rare resource in an outsider without a proper background and trusty past.
Leylin isn’t very suspicious of the Pope either because he knows the reason behind his good grace. All the good offers, easy promotion, better resources and protection even at the point where a Commander tried to first make sure Leylin retreated before engaging in a confrontation at full throttle.
All of this has a reason and the reason is the –
Church Prophecy.
“Let’s get started shall we? I going to recite the holy words and start the Baptism. You only need to follow my lead and let the kindness and benevolence of God embrace you! For now, go inside there.”
Leylin listened to her and entered the pond, the liquid was very viscous and Leylin could also feel a bit of coldness invading into his body. Leylin walked till he stood in the middle and the solution was at his chest level.
“Yarri Terii Kiarra Mujhe Tibya Pyalu! ” Rose took a very certain stance with one of her hand clenched and raised above, her face became extremely serious as she begin to recite in an awkward language, Leylin asked the A. I. Chip to record her words and try to match it with the database.
Suddenly, Leylin felt the pale green water move as a certain force begin to get inside his body. He felt a surge of pain surging out of every part of his body. His body was searing while the solution was becoming extremely colder, this strange opposite contrast in temperature brought more discomfort and pain for Leylin.
[Beep! A strong force invading the Host’s body! Expel. Yes/No]
“No! ” Leylin spoke through gritted teeth.
