I was eliminated in the round of 16. That was still a good showing. Leon seemed to be even more cruel in his match to get in the quarterfinals. Because there was more time in the day to go, the Quarterfinals of the tournament began again. The Dragon's Flame members were all killed by the grand masters of the other churches. Chat had to struggle, but also was able to defeat Mother Superior Kianna of the Church of the Sky. She was able to escape death after the fight. Leon also had problems, but defeated Grand Master Fabien Dawnbringer. He said something to him and let him go. That was all the matches for the day. I praised Chat and Leon for their wins. "If I had beat Fabien, it would have been so cool. I guess that's the luck of the draw." They shrugged and we continued drinking. The next day, Chien and I were in the stands together watching the others. It was the final day of the tournament. Leon and Chat beat their opponents and let them live. It seemed that they were not able to kill them and saw it would be too much to go after them. It was a clinch for us.
Since the two finalists were from the same church, the tournament ended there. I cheered for them. The king came down to the arena an hour and praised them both. He gave them their reward for the tournament. They were made co-champions and a large sum of money was given to them. All the warriors in the round of 16 were invited to a party. We showed up and Leon and Chat were given the place of honor. We were also with them and the king asked them what church they should devote the new building to. They said "We differ to Canan Hawks on this." The king and the rest of the party turned to me. I had the pop up appear before me. I accepted the honor and I told him to make it for the Church of the Seven Roses. He nodded and said and what type of worship center should it be. I was given the choice between having a big cathedral, grand mosque, or major eastern shrine. I had an affinity for the Shinto shrine. I picked that one because it came with guardian gods. Two deities would spawn to protect to shrine from any attack or evil. It gave no bonus to recruitment or faith as a downside.
The king nodded and said "The construction on the shrine will begin immediately." Everyone cheered and we were free to do as we pleased. I was taking the opportunity to look at the palace and I thought it was pretty cool. He had a pretty sweet life. It could always change hands depending on what others do. Even if the king's whole line was slaughtered, another notable family with a claim would take the throne. If there was any contention, it would trigger the civil war event. That could be interesting, but not at the moment. I was not strong enough to fight a civil war. Grand Master Fabien Dawnbringer kicked my ass. I could not imagine going against a whole army of powerful generals and a host of special troops. When I was finished I returned to the party. Sir Dawnbringer came up to me and gestured to the side. "How does victory taste, harpy?" he asked. I told him that it felt good. He then looked carefully at me. "I heard from your companion that you told him to spare me the way I spared you." he said. I nodded. "I really misjudged you. I just wanted to see if it was true." he said as he left.
