Chapter 111: Unexpected twist

The perfect redness of the underskirt that the intervening man was wearing combined with deep indigo of his outer robes instantly gave away his position. Only a single group of people was privy to wear clothes with this kind of specific colouring. And that alone was enough for Fen's mind to blank out, replaced with his sheer instincts alone.

"Latiel, are you oka…"

As soon as another voice, this time a female one, joined the fray, Fen's ingrained reactions kicked in. With all the ideas to pretend that he was weaker than he was in reality, a set of multiple small explosions erupted under his feet, instantly launching him towards the man.

"Wha…"

Lunging forward, due to his initial position beforehand, Fen's body moved nearly parallel to the ground, just two or three hands-width above the ground itself. Before anyone could even think about reacting, his outstretched hands already grasped the cloth of the intervening man's robes. The very next moment, the young man tackled his target, pushing both of them on the stones that made the pavement. 

"Die."

Not even controlling his own words that somehow moved out of his lips by themselves, Fen freed his right hand and moved it to the back, covering it in the densest firest that he was capable of producing. Even though his training was short, they were already several times greater than what he was capable of producing back in the empire to the point where the stone pieces that made up the city road started maybe not melting, but surely hints of condensed water covered their surface. Just as if Fen's fire was strong enough to boil all the water out of them!

"STOP!"

Just as the young man was about to bury his right fist into the stomach of the man dressed in the Draconis' church robes, Fen actually realised that something was holding his hand still!

"You are not in the empire anymore! He is not here to kill you!"

Screaming from the bottom of his lungs, Latiel forced Fen to stall his actions for a moment, ignoring the obvious pain that he had to suffer in order to hold back Fen's burning hand.

Thankfully, the expression of absolute horror that turned into a sudden realisation that appeared on the priest's face, complemented with Latiel's shouts managed to break Fen from his stupor, allowing for the rationality to return to his mind.

"Ugh…"

All at once, the stress that his body had to suffer to suddenly mobilise all its force in this attack reached Fen's mind, making his entire body tense up in insane pain. 

"Just calm down…"

Slowly extinguishing his own fires, Fen reached the absolute limit of his endurance. In the very next moment, he could only idly observe as his body was lifted from the tackled priest, revealing an uneasy yet sympathetic expression of the man, that somehow lacked any hint of anger or fury that such a sudden and unjustified attack should cause. 

Bit by bit, the situation was returning to normal. From the reactions of the people that gathered to watch the fake showcase from before, Fen was smart enough to realise that although this kind of occurrences wasn't common, it was definitely something that did happen in the past.

"Who could've thought that I would be one of those unlucky priests that would rile up a newcoming Phoenixians in our city…"

Standing up from the place where Fen tackled him a moment ago, the priest said with a strange yet sympathetic tone before slapping his hands right against his clothes as if he wanted to get rid of all the duts that attached to them when he was pushed on the ground.

"At least now I can say for sure that those events were not some urban legends but a real occurrence."

Adding this silly comment with his face now clearly twisting in a joyous smile, the man moved his sight from the unspecified person that he was speaking to back to the Fen. At this point, only an idiot wouldn't realise what kind of mistake he committed, and Fen definitely didn't belong to this bunch. Lowering his head, he could only await the punishment for his rash, irrational according to the local common-sense actions.

"Are you okay?"

Reaching with his hand towards the limp body of the young man, the priest couldn't do anything that would surprise Fen more. Unless he were to suddenly shed all of his clothes and start singing some kind of mantras while running naked in circles, the priest already reached the peak of acting against Fen's expectations.

"Barely…?"

Unsure how to react towards this unexpected show of kindness, Fen bit his lips before using all of the energy that managed to return to his muscles in this short moment of rest that he had in the arms of the people that pulled him away to accept the priest's hand.

Suddenly pulled up with one decisive move, the young arcanist was now faced with the face of the man that he was ready to kill just a moment ago. Yet, despite everything that happened in the last few moments, there wasn't even a single sign or even a hint of hostility on the priest's face.

"First, I need to express my deepest apologies for whatever you had to go through due to the action of the southern sect. While it's not my personal fault, it is obvious that it was the ineptibtility of the early church of mine that caused for such brutal and heretic group to establish itself in this world and remain intact to this very day."

Not even bothering to lecture or bash at the young man, the priest actually stepped two paces to the back before lowering his head with an apogelctic look on his face.

"Secondly, I need to explain one thing to you, as I can tell how confused this entire situation has to be for you. But before that… Men, I think he can already stand on his own. There is no need to keep holding him like that."

It was the priest's sudden remark that made Fen realise that the people that pulled him away from this man's body just a moment ago, didn't dare to completely let go of him. Only once directly prompted by the victim of the young man's sudden outburst did the group that took the responsibility of controlling him dared to disband. Yet, just a single look around would be enough for any normal person to notice that they were ready to step back in at the first given notice.

Thankfully, Fen wasn't a normal human, so he could feel this reality just from the atmosphere of the place, saving him embarrassment that would inevitably come if here were to start looking around to gauge it properly.

"Now, I can see on your face that you are ready to apologise… But there is no need. While you surprised me quite a lot with how quickly you acted, I could tell from those bloodshot eyes of yours that it wasn't something that you did consciously… Hmm… To be fair, seeing how desperate and flawless your attack was, I can tell you two things."

Moving two paces to the front, exactly as far as he stepped backwards just a moment ago, the priest looked around on the faces of the crowd. Noticing something that caused him quite a lot of annoyance which was instantly reflected on his honest face, he actually raised the loose cloth of his outer robe and threw it up, allowing the cloth to cover his and Fen's face as he leaned over the young man's ear.

"First thing first, there is no need to apologise. Like I said, just from those bloodshot eyes of yours I can tell that I could lose my mind just by listening to the story of what happened to you back in the empire. And secondly…"

Despite the cloth of his robes covering their faces, the priest still pretended to look around, as if wary of anyone eavesdropping of what he was whispering to Fen's ear.

"Seeing how quickly and decisively you reacted… Not to speak about how impressive that fire of yours was… I can tell that you might find it problematic to get any rest from all the offers that mercenary groups will start sending your way any moment now. If you will ever need some help with ignoring their advances, be sure to look for me in the West Town's chapel. I might only be able to help you a tiny bit, but it's still better than not doing anything to repay the blood debt that my church created by letting those bloodthirsty heretics roam the world and use our name!"

As soon as he said those words, the priest finally took down the cloth from above their heads, quickly scanning their surroundings right in the next moment. Still leaning above Fen's ear, he added.

"I would love to talk a bit more, but now you will have to deal with the official testimony to the city guards. Also, if my teenage soul still didn't wither completely, then I think I can tell what was the entire previous fight about… And it might be quite problematic to figure out on the spot how you will explain to your friend's girl how could your power spike so high when compared to what you presented while faking a fight with him. Just keep that problem in mind while the guards will take care of you for the next few moments!"