Mage Adam

"Adam, what do we do?" William asked nervously.

There was no emotion in Adam's eyes, as he tried to make sense of the situation before him, analyzing each flaw that he discovered.

He didn't believe in the miracles; there has to be a gimmick to it.

"Adam?" William asked, shaking Adam as he watched the priests gather the crowd.

"Flesh and blood," Adam said suddenly, remembering the acts of the previous priest.

"What do you mean?" Crystal asked.

Adam did not answer her, but ordered, "Spare the priest and the remaining survivors. Kill the rest of them."

Although the three had doubts, they carried out his orders swiftly.

Immediately, wind, fire, lightning, and slashes of swords swept through the sky, reaping the lives of each and every follower of the cult.

The priests watched as the crowd was slaughtered before him, and shouted in a panic, "Blasphemers! Demons!"

Ophelia cut through the crowd and leapt beside him, grabbing the collar of the priest and shaking him. In an instant, the priest was paralyzed and unable to speak, and Ophelia slammed his body to the ground.

The battle ended as soon as it started, and all the other priests, save for the main priest, were killed. The remaining survivors stared at Adam's team, and after a moment of silence, charged towards Adam and his team, shouting words of rage.

Adam was stunned at their behaviour, but soon realised that they were unknowingly charging towards their death with blind faith. They could kill the Supreme God Cult ruthlessly, but they can't just kill ordinary people without reason.

"Come out."

With a single order, the devil popped out and morphed into a giant mouth. The mouth roared and spewed negative energy, sending every single person into a coma.

"What's wrong with them? Didn't we save them?" William said.

"You destroyed their hope, silly," the devil laughed. "When you take away a human's last shred of hope, it is no surprise that they would be irrationally angry."

"Blindly placing your faith on a god because of a few miracles, how stupid," Adam muttered, grabbing the man who was resurrected.

"Master, not everyone is as strong as you," the devil said.

"Are you sure you didn't hit this man with your magic?" Adam asked.

The three of them nodded.

"As expected then -- the resurrection was just a trick," Adam said, throwing the body to the three of them. They realised that the person was already dead, and was simply a puppet being controlled.

"What about the severed limbs?" William asked, once again thinking of his father.

Adam walked up to the unconscious priest and glanced at Ophelia with a frown. He yanked the cane out of his arms and used a current of electricity to wake him up from his coma.

After the priest opened his eyes, he immediately charged towards Adam.

William remembered what his father said about the priests self-destructing and warned, "Be careful!"

Adam immediately shot out a burst of electricity, paralysing the priest in place, "Tell me -- what is the Supreme God? How do you communicate with him? And how do you perform your miracles?"

The priest was paralyzed from head-to-toe, save for his mouth. The priest grinned maniacally and shouted, "Blasphemers don't deserve to know the truth," and blew himself up.

Adam's psychic barrier barely flinched at the explosion.

"Damn it," William muttered.

"See for yourself, then," Adam pointed at the corpse.

After the priest died, the "resurrected" man fell apart, with his limbs turning into monsters that bit and devoured at each other.

William bounced back in disgust.

"The Supreme God Cult needs believers in every way possible," Adam explained. "The massacre before should be the cult's way of showing off their power as well."

Crystal raised her concerns, "But the inherent magic within ordinary humans is extremely miniscule. How could tens of thousands of people possibly obtain powers from another dimension?"

"They are trying to cultivate gods," Ophelia said.

Although her words were brief, everyone understood her immediately. Although ordinary people are weak in magic, gods from other planes and dimensions have ways to strengthen this magic.

"Then, what about us?"

"You're just like them," the devil snickered. "Massacaring all of them."

Although mages don't care for the lives of ordinary people, it still isn't morally right to be killing them without reason. After all, his teammates would not allow him to do so. Besides, if he murdered every human along the way, then the Academy would surely subdue him.

"These are mere limbs of the Supreme God Cult. We need to locate the headquarters."

Everyone nodded in agreement, leaving the remaining townspeople in a coma.

In the next month or so, Adam's team continued to exterminate the cults scattered across the west, finding several similar canes of bones along the way. After Ophelia's examination, they discovered that all of the canes were the same.

Because of their extermination activities, the Supreme God Cult adapted their operations to be more secretive and Adam's team failed to find any large-scale sacrifices for an entire week.

When the devil couldn't sense any more sacrifices in the west, Adam's team decided to march forward towards the Supreme God Cult's headquarters, deciding to end this once and for all.

The blood-fog obscures the sky in a dark, red glow.