TRT Chapter 107: Chosen of Tempest (Patreon)

I rubbed my face at Celestial Weaver’s words, trying to calm the turmoil in my heart. If she was telling the truth, and I had no reason to believe otherwise at the moment, then that meant that there was more to Celestial Hound’s betrayal than I thought.

I already suspected as much, thanks to the memory I regained when I pushed my divine sense beyond its limit and damaged my mind, but I hadn’t realized it was this complicated.

Celestial Hound betrayed me by stabbing me in the back and shattering my soul. That was a fact. However, he also brought my soul here to Lumina. If his goal was to destroy me, then he wouldn’t have done so. This meant that he had some other reason for doing what he did. Why did he shatter my soul? What did he hope to accomplish?

However, the most important question was this: had Celestial Hound betrayed me or not?

Ever since I regained the memories of my past lives, I believed that to be true. Now I had reason to question otherwise, which threw my heart into chaos. Getting revenge on Celestial Hound had been one of the driving forces behind my actions thus far. If he hadn’t betrayed me, then I had no reason to get revenge on him.

Confusion and doubt plagued me. Ugh. Things were simpler when all I had to think about was getting revenge on Celestial Hound for stabbing me in the back. Learning that there may have been more to his actions complicated matters, and gave me a headache.

Hold on.

Why was I making things more complicated than they needed to be?

I could always just ask Celestial Hound myself.

No. Even better. I could beat the truth out of him.

A grin stretched across my face as I realized that I didn’t need to kill Celestial Hound to get revenge on him. I would give a beating so brutal that his descendants would feel it. After that, I would make him tell me the truth of the matter. If I didn’t like his answer, I could kill him afterwards. If he had a good reason for stabbing me in the back and shattering my soul, I would spare his life.

Simple.

I saw this as a foolproof plan with no flaws or faults whatsoever. This wasn’t just me trying to justify my anger and hatred towards my former best friend.

Of course, if he was who I suspected he was, then it would take me a while to reach his current level of power. I would need to be at the Path Seeking stage at a minimum. No, maybe Immortal Ascension stage. While I could punch above my weight class due to my knowledge and experience as Celestial Thunder, the same applied to Celestial Hound. I had always been the stronger one between us, but only by a narrow margin.

“Oh dear,” Celestial Weaver said with a sigh.

“Looks like I won the bet,” Master Celestial Blade said with a complicated expression on his face. “I’m not sure how I feel about this.”

Without a word, Celestial Weaver flipped a coin in my master’s direction. He caught it with ease, before putting it somewhere within his robe.

Wait a minute.

“Are you two reading my mind?” I asked, narrowing my eyes at them.

“Yes,” they both said at the same time.

Rude.

“Did you bet on whether or not I would still want revenge on Celestial Hound after hearing your story?”

“Yes.”

I grumbled under my breath at this. On the one hand, this showed how well my first masters knew me. On the other hand, it showed me in a poor light.

I opened my mouth to ask my next question, but before I could, the throne room shook. The shaking only lasted for a few seconds, but it was violent enough to crack the walls of the throne room. A golden light surrounded me. I hadn’t even noticed when it appeared, but I had a feeling that without it, I would have died just then.

“I’m going to bury that cur alive,” Celestial Weaver said, staring off into the distance, murder in her eyes.

Master Celestial Blade sighed.

“Looks like our time together is over, Celestial Thunder,” he said. “This time for real. Aeros found us, or me to be specific. We need to get you out of here before he sees you.”

I wanted to protest. There was so much that I wanted to ask. While our conversation cleared up some matters for me, it also left me with even more questions than before. Yet, I kept hold of my tongue. Mortals had no place interfering with the affairs of gods, and I was still very much mortal.

For now.

Instead, I took this time to say what mattered the most.

“I love you,” I said. “Both of you. Words cannot express how happy I am to see you alive.”

My first masters both gave me soft smiles.

“We love you too,” Celestial Weaver said.

Master Celestial Blade nodded.

“Now get out of here, before you get caught up in our fight,” he said.

Celestial Weaver stomped her foot. The ground beneath me gave way, and I fell. The last things I saw before darkness and stone enveloped me was my first masters drawing their weapons. A silver whip for Celestial Weaver, and a black sword for Master Celestial Blade.

‘Remember,’ they both said, their voices echoing in my mind. ‘We are always watching over you.’

***

I fell through the darkness and stone. As before, I couldn’t move or breathe. At least this time, I knew there was an end to the journey, so I didn’t freak out.

Moments later, I emerged into sunshine. I flew through the air, before hitting the ground and rolling forward until I hit something solid. A brief glance with my divine sense told me that I was back at the prayer room atop the Temple of Tempest. This time, it was the altar that stopped me.

“Gabe!” Aurora yelled out.

She flew over and wrapped her body around me.

“I was so worried about you! When you disappeared, I tried to follow you but something blocked me. If I hadn’t felt a glimmer of Mother’s power, I don’t know what I would have done.”

Aurora’s body shook, revealing just how distressed she felt about my sudden disappearance. Guilt filled me. I had been so preoccupied with my reunion with my first masters, my mom and dad, that I hadn’t spared any thought for my familiar. Otherwise, I would have asked Celestial Weaver to bring Aurora along as well.

‘Everything is all right now,’ I said, speaking to her telepathically. ‘I’m back now.’

I stroked Aurora’s head while letting out a low crooning sound. It took several minutes, but she stopped shaking.

‘I’m sorry,’ I said. ‘If I had realized how it would make you feel, I would have asked Celestial Weaver to bring you too.’

Aurora paused, before lifting her head and looking me in the eyes.

‘Celestial Weaver?’ she asked.

I gave my familiar a brief rundown of my history with Celestial Blade and Celestial Weaver, since I wasn’t sure how much she knew, before summarizing my conversation with them earlier.

‘You met Mother?!’ Aurora asked, yelling in my mind. She grabbed me by the collar of my shirt and shook me. ‘That’s not fair! I wanted to see her too! Why did you get special treatment?’

I gave her an incredulous stare.

‘That’s your takeaway from this?’ I asked.

Aurora rolled her eyes.

‘It was always clear to me that you were special to Mother and Tempest,’ she said. ‘I mean, Mother had me, a World Serpent, become your familiar. It doesn’t get any more special than that. Finding out that they’re your first masters isn’t much of a surprise when you think of it like that.’

She…had a point.

‘You know what’s even better?’ Aurora asked with a grin. ‘Mother and Tempest consider you their son, and you consider them your parents; your first parents that is. This means that you and I are siblings, after a fashion.” She shifted into her human form. “Twins, to be exact.”

Again, she had a point.

Warmth filled me, displacing the anger and confusion from before.

‘In that case, which one of us is the older twin?’ I asked. ‘If we take total years of existence into account, I’m over twenty thousand years old.’

‘Time spent dead doesn’t count,’ Aurora said, pointing a finger at me. ‘Only years spent alive do.’

I frowned in thought at this.

‘Then I’m not sure,’ I admitted. ‘I stopped keeping track of the individual years after a while. If we take all three of my lives into account, I’m around ten thousand years old, give or take a century.’

Aurora clicked her tongue in displeasure.

‘Nine thousand four hundred and fifty six for me.’ She crossed her arms with a huff. ‘Looks like you’re the older one, big brother.’

I grimaced.

‘Ugh, don’t call me that,’ I said. ‘Just stick with Gabe.’

Aurora nodded, before her expression morphed into one of concern.

‘How are you feeling? I know that this must have come as a big shock to you.’

I paused before answering her.

‘I feel good,’ I said with a slight smile on my face. ‘Actually, that’s an understatement. I feel amazing. Fantastic. Ecstatic.’ I took a moment to think about it. ‘There are no words in this language, or anything other, to describe how I’m feeling right now, so I’ll just show you.’

I conveyed my emotions through our familiar bond. My joy at reuniting with my first masters, as well as my anger and confusion towards Celestial Hound.

Aurora rubbed her cheek against mine, which was a little weird since she was in her human form, but I grew used to it soon enough.

‘I’m happy for you,’ she said in a soft voice, before her tone turned wry. ‘Though I am a little upset that Mother didn’t bring me along too. You and I are one now, after all.’

‘I’ll remember to ask next time. Assuming there is a next time, that is.’

Meeting gods face to face like that wasn’t something that happened too often. Most mortals would have died right away. However, since I had the soul of a reincarnated Immortal, I was fine.

However, given Sol’s rules against interacting with the mortal world too much, I assumed it would be a long while before I saw either of my first masters again. Still, I was glad they took the risk to let me know that they were alive.

Well, Celestial Weaver did. Master Celestial Blade just acted like a dick in the form of a prank.

I sat there for a minute, enjoying the warmth that filled me, before Aurora poked me in the cheek.

‘By the way,’ she said. ‘What are you going to do about the soldiers?’

‘What soldiers?’ I asked with a frown.

‘The soldiers who are here to arrest Priestess Kaya. They’re standing right in front of the gate to the temple.’

I stared at her for a long moment.

‘What?’

I rushed over to the edge of the prayer room, while casting out my divine sense at the same time. Thankfully, the barrier of Holy magic that surrounded the Temple of Tempest kept people from peeking in with their spirit/divine sense, but it didn’t stop anyone from peeking out.

A small army of paladins and priests stood outside the front gate leading to the Temple of Tempest. Their armor and robes all bore the symbol of Aeros. An equal number of paladins and priests of Tempest manned the walls and stood behind the gate, looking ready to repel an attack, should one come.

Priestess Kaya stood atop the wall, yelling down at the priests and paladins of Aeros. It looked like she was arguing with their leader, a paladin at the Holy magic equivalent of the Fourth Circle. I couldn’t tell exactly how powerful he was, since I didn’t know much about Holy magic in the first place, but he seemed to be in the lower end of the Fourth Circle.

Unless he was one of those freaks who could punch above their weight class, this paladin was no match for Priestess Kaya. As a magic beast, she was both stronger and tougher than a human at the same level of power, unless they were a body cultivator. Not only that, but she had the intelligence to use her inborn magic, which meant she could use spells as well.

However, from what I overheard, this paladin had the grand priest of Aeros backing him up. That changed matters. Each of the temples belonging to the Church of the Sun had their own individual power structures. A priest or high priest from one temple couldn’t order around a junior priest or priest from another temple. At least in theory.

In reality, priests belonging to temples that worshiped the more powerful gods bossed around priests who belonged to temples that worshiped less powerful gods all the time. It wasn’t that big of a deal, unless someone took it too far.

Grand priests were an exception. As the highest ranking servants of the gods, down here in the mortal realm, each grand priest was considered the voice of the god they served. That was why the head of the church was called the Voice of Sun, for he spoke in Sol’s name. To defy a grand priest was to defy their god, which no one wanted to do. When a grand priest commanded, the rest of the church obeyed.

With a few exceptions.

I studied the scene below while listening in with my divine sense. The head paladin carried a scroll on him, an arrest order for Priestess Kaya, signed by the grand priest of Aeros. She was delaying it as much as possible, but without Grand Priest Darius to countermand the arrest order, it was just a matter of time before the paladins and priests of Aeros took her into custody; by force if necessary. The lot of them looked ready for a fight, and church law was on their side.

As the aide to a grand priest, Priestess Kaya had a lot of authority, but not as much as an actual grand priest.

‘Why didn’t you tell me about this sooner?’ I demanded.

‘The situation wasn’t that urgent and you were still working through your personal issues,’ Aurora pointed out. ‘It wasn’t like we had to deal with it right away.’

I narrowed my eyes at her. She had a point, but I didn’t like it. I conveyed my displeasure through our familiar bond.

‘Oh, please,’ Aurora said, rolling her eyes. ‘I kept an eye on the situation. If something had changed, I would have told you.’

I glared at her for a few more seconds, before turning my attention back to the standoff occurring at the gate.

So, this was what Master Celestial Blade wanted to happen. This was the choice he wanted me to make. As his Chosen, I had as much authority as a grand priest, maybe even more so. If I revealed myself as the Chosen of Tempest, I could save Priestess Kaya.

Remain in hiding to avoid dealing with the headaches that came with being a Chosen? Or reveal myself and save Priestess Kaya from getting arrested, and potentially expelled from the Church of the Sun?

I snorted.

It wasn’t even a choice. I glared at the rain storm surrounding the Grand Temple.

‘Master, you manipulative bastard.’

I heard a chuckle in the back of my mind.

I sighed. Oh well. Time to get this over with.

‘Let’s go down and say hello,’ I said.

Aurora shifted into her storm dragon form and wrapped herself around my shoulders.

‘Hell yeah!’

I unsheathed Sky’s Dream, hopped onto it, and flew down towards the front gate.

***

A quick check told me that the Holy magic barrier surrounding the Temple of Tempest only prevented people from getting in. It didn’t prevent anyone from getting out. Perfect. Since I was going to reveal myself as the Chosen of Tempest, I might as well be as dramatic about it as possible.

As I flew towards the front gate from the top of the temple, Priestess Kaya noticed my descent. She stopped arguing with the head paladin of Aeros, and looked up at me.

“Lord Gabriel?” she called out.

I didn’t respond and continued flying down. When I drew close enough, I leapt off of Sky’s Dream and used Lightning Flash to continue the rest of the way down. At the same time, I used a mystic art.

[Lightning Arts: Heavenly Raiment]

It was the mystic art equivalent of a shield spell, one that used Lightning mana, or qi if I wanted to be technical about it, to protect the cultivator’s body. Where it differed was that after the Heavenly Raiment suffered enough damage, it exploded as a last ditch attempt to injure any attackers. This explosion could also be triggered early by the cultivator who used the mystic art.

Since mystic arts were inferior to wizardry spells, I never had reason to use it since I was better off using shield spells. However, now that I understood part of the key to combining cultivation and wizardry, that was no longer an issue.

I landed right in front of the gate to the Temple of Tempest, clad in lightning and thunder, with Aurora wrapped around my shoulders. The moment my feet touched the ground, I exploded the Heavenly Raiment, the sound as loud as a thunderclap. I was far enough away that the explosion didn’t hurt anyone, but it threw up a cloud of dust into the air.

I’d say that was a dramatic enough entrance.

“Lord Gabriel!” Priestess Kaya called down from her perch. “What are you doing?”

She looked ready to leap down after me.

“Just let me handle this, Priestess Kaya,” I called back, glancing up at her. “Don’t come down here just yet.”

She wore a conflicted expression on her face, but acquiesced in the end.

“You!” a voice rang out.

As the cloud of dust settled, I saw one of the priests of Aeros march forward and stand next to the head paladin. Ah, it was Algar, the asshole who got the shit beat out of him by Kaya. He still looked a little fucked up, but at least he was up and about. Holy magic performed wonders and literal miracles.

“Paladin Graysen,” Algar screeched, pointing a finger at me. “This is the one who aided that beast in assaulting me. Arrest him as well!”

The head paladin, Graysen, glanced at him before facing me. His expression, cold and professional, revealed nothing of his thoughts.

Paladin Graysen looked to be in his mid to late twenties. He had pale skin, medium length hair the color of corn silk, and sky blue eyes. He was also breathtakingly handsome, and just about radiated righteousness. Combined with the enchanted armor he wore, and the sword at his side, he looked like the ideal paladin of Aeros; handsome, powerful, and just.

“Is this true, Lord Gabriel?” Paladin Graysen asked.

“I don’t know what you mean,” I asked in an innocent voice. “It’s not my fault that High Priest Algar ran into my foot and tripped over it.”

Paladin Graysen looked unimpressed by my act. Algar, on the other hand, let out a furious squeak. His face turned so red, I feared that he would suffer an apoplectic fit.

“You insolent little-…” he said, unable to finish his sentence.

I felt him start to use his Holy magic, but then Priestess Kaya jumped off the wall and landed right next to me. Her aura exploded out, pressuring everyone in the vicinity except for Aurora, myself, and the other servants of Tempest. Most of the priests and paladins who served Aeros staggered back, including Algar. The weaker ones outright fell to their knees. Only Paladin Graysen remained unaffected.

“Try it, and I’ll rip your head off, Algar,” Priestess Kaya snarled in an inhuman voice.

Her hands morphed into wicked looking claws.

Algar, already off-balance due to Priestess Kaya’s aura, scrambled back and fell on his ass.

“Yo-You dare to thre-threaten me even no-now, beast?” he stammered out.

Paladin Graysen stepped forward, interposing himself between Priestess Kaya and Algar.

“Priestess Kaya,” he said. “By order of Nicholas Mullins, grand priest of Aeros, I hereby place you under arrest for the crime of assaulting a high priest of Aeros.” He looked at me. “For aiding and abetting her, I am also placing you under arrest, Lord Gabriel Sturm. Please, do not resist while we take you both into custody.”

I mirrored Paladin Graysen’s movements and stepped forward, interposing myself between him and Priestess Kaya.

“No,” I said in a pleasant voice. “You’re not taking anyone into custody.”

Paladin Graysen ignored me and gestured for his people to move forward. Several paladins marched towards us.

Right. Here went nothing.

The symbol of Tempest emerged from my forehead.

When they saw it, the paladins stopped in place and stared at me in shock. Paladin Graysen’s eyes widened a fraction of an inch, though he otherwise showed no reaction.

“I said you’re not taking anyone into custody, Paladin Graysen,” I said.

Aurora snarled, underscoring my point.

I detected hints of Master Celestial Blade’s voice laced throughout my own, giving it a strange quality. It reminded me a little of how Celestial Weaver, in her capacity as Terra, spoke to Lady Rosewood using Lorelei as a medium.

The priests and paladins behind Paladin Graysen and Algar started whispering to each other.

“Chosen!”

“He’s a Chosen!”

“What do we do now?”

Some sounded awed, some sounded afraid, and some sounded skeptical. Despite my display, it looked like a few didn’t believe I was actually Tempest’s Chosen, including Algar.

“Don’t be fooled!” he screeched. Ancestors, he had an annoying voice. “This is just a trick! He’s not a Chosen! Take them!”

Aurora hissed at Algar, causing him to flinch back. He otherwise stood his ground.

The group of paladins who had marched forward to arrest me and Priestess Kaya all glanced at each other, before turning towards Paladin Graysen.

When in doubt, kick the problem up to a superior.

Paladin Graysen narrowed his eyes at me. I could almost hear the gears turning in his mind.

“You must be blind as well as a fool, High Priest Algar,” Priestess Kaya said with a scornful laugh. “To think that you wouldn’t even recognize my lord’s mark.”

“You…!” Algar faced the paladins. “What are you doing? Arrest them!”

Paladin Graysen held his hand up, signaling them to stop.

“What are you doing?” Algar asked.

“It is not up to us to decide if Lord Gabriel is the Chosen of Lord Tempest or not,” he said. “That is something for the High Council to determine.”

The High Council was the Church of the Sun’s governing body. It consisted of all the grand priests within the church, including the Voice of the Sun. They set church law, advised the Sun Emperor, and interpreted the will of the gods.

They were also the ones responsible for testing on whether a prospective Chosen was authentic or not, though I wasn’t sure how that worked. Some people pretended to be Chosen, in order to reap the benefits, but it never ended well for them. The Church of Sun considered this blasphemy of the highest order, and dealt with false Chosen with extreme prejudice.

“Then by all means,” I said, giving Paladin Graysen a smile that didn’t reach my eyes. “Let us meet with the High Council. I’m sure they would love to clear things up for us.”

“Oh, I don’t think that will be necessary,” someone said in a strong and clear voice. “Do you, Corvus?”

Everyone turned to find an old man wearing a simple white robe coming down the mountain path. He was thin, with leathery brown skin and a mane of long white hair. A long white beard adorned his wrinkled face. Despite his apparent age, the old man stood tall and erect. His golden eyes shone with an inner brilliance, as if they were a pair of stars. There was a presence to the old man that gave him an air of both wisdom and humility.

However, it was his power that took my breath away. This old man was at the Holy magic equivalent of the Eighth Circle. If he were a cultivator, he would be one step away from reaching the Immortal Ascension/Demigod stage. There was only one person that I knew of who this old man could be.

Aurelius, the Voice of the Sun.