Sir Merek the Meek was younger than me, but highly skilled with an axe. He was also a known scholar of mathematics. He got his moniker as he was very easy to startle and was not brave in the sense of battle. He was pretty competent with tasks given to him. When the knights were brought out, I could hear him mumble able which vertebrae needed to be severed to do the most efficient job. The mayor gave a speech and the citizens of the city cheered and were ready to see them die. Merek lifted the giant axe and brought it down on the mayors signal. One by one, the Death Knights were slaughtered. They did not cry out. They did not shed a tear. No fear was on any of their faces. They had been beaten and tortured long before the orders came from Ollie. All of them were beaten again just before they they were brought up. None of the pain showed on their faces. They only had the religious passion of martyrdom. "Is this what love for your god looks like!?" I muttered when Merek came to Blavier and Wymark. They were the last two alive. They had heard me and held eye contact.
When the end came for them, they just smiled wider. Dead, I just shrugged. NPCs did not come back as there were no resurrection spells. Even if they came back as undead, they would be mindless creatures. There was not a single reason to fear them anymore. Even though they were bigger than us, they were still a small cult. With a total of 45 Death Knights dead, this had to be a massive set back to them. We waited out in the city until the royal army could come in and relieve those that were still defending. Since we were being relieved, I decided to go to the shrine. I thought it would be nice to see how it was doing. Zeta and Eta and three of the five knights that made it through the battle were coming with me. I wanted to leave as the people in the city were beginning to freak me out with how blood thirsty they were getting. The journey did have some real danger as we met loose bands of the enemy. We killed them on sight as we made a path on our way to the shrine. Cocoa, Cinnabun, Hopper and Snowflake waved at us and let us up the stairs to the shrine. They surrounded us as we went.
As we pet them, they relaxed and smiled. "Welcome to the shrine, intrepid paladins." Cocoa said. "We are the guardians that take care of the grounds and make sure everyone remain safe." Hopper added. Cinnabun said "I do remember you, Canan. Did you want to lay with me?" I shook my head. "I wanted to ask how the war was going. Are you four okay?" They looked nervous. Snowflake pouted and said "Lots of Death Knights come. We can go out and repel them, but they keep coming." Guardian deities did not have the same restrictions as the actual gods did. They could kill anyone they wanted with ease. Pretty much with just one hit. However, probably that was a last resort. It was not something they wanted to do all the time. Inquisitor Ollie nodded at us and asked "Was the order too unsettling?" I shrugged and said "I had the order carried out and left when we were relieved. Is there a problem? I wanted to know what I should do next." He just smiled and said "You should have just wrote me. I would have told you to be on standby. I was just thinking of a plan.
The Inquisitor just smiled wider. "If we want to take the offensive further than our borders, we need to be very bold. Did you know that there actually is a small cathedral for Gristomales in the country of Sivson. Just like this shrine, it stands alone with a small town of faithful. Since this shrine is new and our faith is small, we only have a smattering of people living nearby. Maybe after this crusade, we will gain some renown." "What I'm hearing is that you want us to go and do a cowardly attack on a village of innocent people and assassinate the clerics of the cathedral. Are you sure that will work. Won't they just be replaced by the spawn rates?" "Yes. But not if it is cleared out and occupied by a cleric of our faith." he said with a nod. He lost his smile. "Like you said, we don't have a spare cleric waiting in the wings to swoop in do you. We went for the dancers and not the admin building." I reminded him. Ollie smirked and said "That's not a problem. Even NPCs can multiclass. Father Jimmy has been totally interested in teaching all he knows. I've been out with some of the dancers. Once they had the exp., I had them ordained."
