Chapter 115: Aftermath

*Trigger warning (just in case)*

The figures of Imogen and Ian finally come into view. They watch Imogen jump toward the gem that is floating in midair and grab it. Kyrie and Laurel watch their backs as they walk towards them.

Amongst the rows of warehouses, where they stood, all the warehouses in a few kilometer radii have received some kind of damage, enough to reveal what is inside. They are standing on a sea of fire, right next to a pile of corpses that reached half the height of a warehouse. Ian stands motionless, looking in front. His sword has been dripping blood nonstop.

Imogen is the first one to turn back to look towards them. She frowns at Laurel, who has not listened to her words and lets Kyrie walk into the warehouses. 

When they are close enough, sweeping sounds register in their ears from people who are still trapped inside huge cages. They all are shackled to the cage like wild animals. The cages pile one on top of the other until they reach the ceiling of the semi-destroyed warehouses. All these captives could do is to watch the fire coming closer and closer to them.

"It's the paladin!" One of the kidnapped shouts.

The captives all squeeze together towards the front, stretching their arms out as they shouted for Kyrie to save them. They all cried in both sadness and joy. Before they see Kyrie coming, they hide all away as far as possible from Imogen and Ian. They are completely terrified of the monstrous strength from those two, especially from Imogen, who does not even seem close to the saintess that they have expected. 

At first, they are glad that someone came to defeat the kidnappers, but once they see Imogen and Ian strike all the demon puppets down without mercy, their hearts squeeze with fear. Those demon puppets have been once like them, captives that were supposed to be sacrificed to that weird stone and turn into a pile of gold. However, the kidnappers have given them another choice, and they accept the pact, turning themselves into demon puppets.

With worry, Kyrie goes to Ian to check on him. Even when Kyrie is right next to him, Ian does not notice. He continues to watch what is in front of him. Kyrie follows Ian's line of sight and looks at the young girl in the middle of a broken enchantment circle. The sight is beyond gruesome - the body is half-turned to small blocks of gold while the other remains in flesh. Tears well in that young girl's eyes as she retains a contorted expression frozen on her face.

Kyrie lets out a sigh from the breath that feels like it is stuck on his chest. He can roughly guess what is going inside Ian's mind. Ian has never lost his wish to save this world - his original purpose for the reason of living the way he did. Kyrie holds Ian's hand, finally taking Ian out of his thoughts - a maze that seems without a correct path. 

He firmly holds Ian's hand while a smile on his face. His eyes are determined, glistening as they both gaze into each other's eyes. 

"You don't have to worry, Ian… Whatever you choose, I will stand on your side."

Ian lets out tears that he has been holding in. There are two desires inside him right now, and they are going against each other. 

"Kyrie... Why are you not mad?"

"Why would I be mad at my Ian?" Kyrie wipes Ian's tears off and confidently smiles.

A group of knights rushes to the scene, and they pale at the number of corpses piled up. The entire place is smothered with blackened fluid and oxidized blood that give off an unbearable smell. Combined with the smoke, the knights choke on their breaths from time to time as they walk into the scene, trembling.

"Sir Paladin," the chief of the group of knights calls.

Kyrie turns to them, "Get all the people from the cages to clinics for medical attention first. Later, I will write a report to the king as to what happened. Those priests…" Kyrie points towards the priests that have been knocked unconscious, "Take them… They are responsible for what happened."

"Yes, Sir Paladin!"

Curious nobles also gather to see what happened, and many of them scream at the sight, sending everyone into a panic. Everyone from the high society gathering starts to run away, fearing that they might get caught in the situation and lose their lives. 

That night, the city remains unrest even though the knights have finished transporting the victims and the criminals to the right place. 

Preventing the fire from spreading has resulted to be the most difficult part of the operation. Several mages have arrived to extinguish the fire, but the fire has lasted until most of the hundred warehouses got wiped out. According to the report, the warehouse has been painted with something extremely inflammable, making the fire close to impossible to extinguish once out of control. 

The temple has denied any connection to the priests that got captured. Later on, all those priests convicted of kidnapping and murder have committed suicide. Although some measures have been taken to make sure that they would not be able to do it, they are all found dead in their cell the next day. All of the priests miss their tongues. When Kyrie has gone to check, he discovers that the priests have not died from biting off their tongue. Instead, they have died from poison. The missing tongues are most likely to avoid the trouble if one survives. This does not surprise Kyrie if Vicar Fagan is behind it since he has gained most from doing it. 

What surprised him most is to find that those priests that are caught red-handed are not sliced to pieces by Imogen. Those priests have entered the cell without a single life-threatening injury. Kyrie thinks that Imogen has found a cure for her psychopathic tendencies, but later, he retracts that statement since he has to stop that woman from heading to the temple and doing her massive cleaning. 

Even though Kyrie is aware that Imogen could only kill under the conditions where she actually finds that the person is unredeemable, the lack of evidence will cause a massive uproar if something happens to the Vicar. If the news spread that Imogen, the saintess, has killed the Vicar without evidence, she would have to suffer all over again the prejudice and maltreatment from countries that worship Vita. 

Imogen does not really care about these kinds of things since they don't really affect her. So, when going to convince her, Kyrie has taken the ultimate shield, Laurel, to be in between them so that he would not get sliced to death himself. Protagonist fever is hard to cure, the same level as his Ianholism!

The news about the horrific crime has gone to every ear in the kingdom, but the credit mostly is given to Kyrie; even though Imogen, the saintess, is the one who rescued the people. Imogen is not bothered by it, but Kyrie and Laurel have made a fuss about it.

---

The temple has remained low profile for a few days since the investigation is in progress. 

Kyrie stands deep inside the massive mansion garden. The sun is withdrawing its vivid colors from the sky, only letting the monotonous shades to the moon. 

"Hmm. Good job. Are you done with the list of items that I told you to gather?"

Imogen stands against a wall of bushes, hiding from Kyrie, facing away from him. If she is to only rely on her vision, she would only see Kyrie talking to himself. However, she can sense numerous presences hidden meticulously. 

"They will be delivered to you by tomorrow morning. Boss…" The figure hidden in the shadow turns his head to where Imogen is hiding.

Kyrie smiles and shakes his head. All those in hiding let go of their weapons.

"Don't worry; she is with us. Don't get fooled too. She is not concealing her presence at all. If possible, don't go near her. You can go back to standby. I will call you when I need you."

"Yes," the figure retreats, and all of the people that are hiding also disappear after three breaths.

Kyrie turns to Imogen, walking out of her 'hiding'. 

"It's not nice to eavesdrop, my good saintess." 

"It is not as bad as hiding that you have a private army yourself."

Kyrie turns to Imogen, "I wasn't really hiding it. I just never had the opportunity to tell you guys since our nice saintess attracts trouble like moths to a flame. I woke from my coma and found out that the temple became corrupt."

Imogen scoffs, but it is not far from the truth. Fate has given her this kind of path after creating the time loop.

"But don't worry… I volunteer to go through this with you."

Kyrie walks towards Imogen and sits on the steps next to where she is standing.

"Hey, cockroach… How will you do that if you cannot even go through the gate?"

"You don't have to worry about that… I will find a way," Kyrie lifts his head to look at the sky, emptying his mind.

"I don't know which way you are planning, but I would like you to stop."

"What do you mean, Imogen?"