The Reagent of Light

The chains between their shackles clinked ceaselessly as the Crimson Crow and Gryphon parties were herded through the cathedral’s colossal doors. 

The regal white alabaster stone and mithril filligree was present on both external and internal side of the temple. Giant statues of the Saintess decorated the cathedral corridor, each one silently passing judgements on the people walking beneath them.

Ushered inside the Grand Cathedral hallways, they entered the main audience hall. It was a monument to devotion and control, with towering stained glass windows depicting the saintess, and her loyal followers, along with the past Reagent of Lights and Blade of the Saintess. Marble pillars carved with spirals of light and flame, decorated the hall, a massive altar that seemed capable of swallowing the air around it was centered at the back of the hall. 

  The once silent hall, now broken by echoes of armored boots across its white sacred tiled floors.

In front of the altar, seated upon a white throne inlaid with veins of gold, was the current Reagent of Light, Alexander, and to his right Captain Ophelia the Blade of Light.

Forced to their knees, Reiji and his companions looked up into the eyes of Alexander, each appraising the one behind the current disaster. Apart from Souma, his eyes had been glued to Captain Ophelia since the moment they entered the hall. 

“Big sis Lilia…” Those words escape his mouth, unknown even to the speaker.

A suffocating silence hung in the air, as they too were studied in turn by the Reagent of Light.

Here sat someone who didn't exert the pressure of a warrior, nor a mage, yet a almost divine pressure radiated off him. His white robes were immaculate, trimmed in threads of radiant silver, his features sharp and composed, his radiant blue eyes contrasting his perfectly gold hair and his long Elvish ears, like a statue brought to life. His eyes burned with a zealous fire, one that could engulf even the entire world.

“Welcome” Alexander spoke, his voice calm and measured, addressing the adventurers like students before a teacher. “The false hero and stray believers, who dare disrupt the divine order.”  His gaze was low, staring at those beneath him, never once changing his posture, his chin resting on his fist as his feet pointed at Reiji. His measure of control absolute.

Jerking at his chains, Reiji scowls at Alexander. “So you’re the one being fed lies by the corrupt Saintess.”

The knights force him to his knees, kicking behind them. The Reagent didn’t flinch, he just smiled.

“The Saintess is not corrupt. She has ascended, becoming stronger than even Elnyra.” Waving his hands to the knights, he continues. “You have been lied to, Reiji. Alicia wishes to return to this land, to guide us. But the spiteful Elnyra fears the loss of her power and status as a goddess, so she summoned you to remove her competitor… You are nothing more than a pawn.”

“Yeah? And how do you know that?” 

Alexander spreads his hands as though bestowing a blessing, changing his posture for the first time. “She speaks to me, from the depths of the seal. Guiding us, with her soft whispers, promising a new dawn where we serve this world alongside her.”

“That’s bull!” Reiji retorts. 

“There’s no way she can speak to you from a seal that changes location randomly.” Nraltia chimes in.

Alexander’s gaze flows over her, his cold eyes uninterested. “And what would an amnesiac Luporine know?”

Rising from his throne, his steps echo like hammers, as he walks forward down to the same level as his captives. With a murmured incantation, the marble behind him cracks open, as the alter slides backwards revealing a staircase. 

A rush of foul oppressive air bleeds out from below, carrying the stench of something ancient, powerful, and twisted.

“The seal lies beneath these very halls,” his eyes alight with fervor. “A prison, holding back our Saintess from her rightful place, in this world, guiding us. Yet as her strength grows, she whispers from the seal, guiding me and her loyal believers.”

“Come let us descend towards the seal,” Alexander says, as he walks towards the stairs. The knights behind them shoving them forward. “ As a final parting gift, I will let you witness the waning seals.”

The stairs spiraled downwards, each step colder than the last. The torches along the walls flickered with pale blue light, creating warped shadows that clawed at the stone walls. At the bottom, the stairs opened into a vast subterranean sanctum.

The ceiling was lost in shadow, its height like a hollowed out cathedral beneath the earth. Columns of bone white stone lined the perimeter, wrapped in black vines, that pulsed faintly in the rhythm of a heartbeat. 

At the center was the glowing seal, floating in midair. It’s diameter 3 meters wide, made of once elaborate glowing white runes, was now faintly pulsing, its edges now a sickly purple, with small spider web cracks snacking through its surface.

At once, the eight captives immediately held their breath, gazing at the corrupted seal for the first time. Their skins crawled, hairs standing on end as cold sweat formed along their spine, their eyes widened in amazement at the sight before them.

Sensing their shock, the Reagent’s smile widened, the sanctum echoing his cold voice like a hymn.

“See what it is you have come for. See the truth with your own eyes. Alicia is ready to return, held back only by the Goddess Elnyra and her fading seal.” He spreads his arms, turning his face towards the seal in prayer.

“Bear witness, for tonight the world changes. Soon the Saintess will rise and the false order will fall… with the aid of the hero Reiji!”

“Hahahaha.” Vaelen and the others burst into laughter, amused at the Reagent’s method of undoing the seal. “We may not have known him long, but even we know that Reiji is too stubborn to be forced to do anything he doesn’t want to.”

Captain Ophelia steps forward towards Reiji, her sacred sword flashing through the air as it slices through his shackles, sending them clattering along the floor.

Standing up, Reiji silently moves towards the seal, his companions dumbfounded by the sight infront of them.

“Re-Reiji, what are you doing?” Nraltia asks concerned by what she was seeing. 

Even Souma and the others were shocked, jerking at their shackles, trying to approach him. In the end, all they could do was shout out his name. 

Glancing back at the others slightly, he says nothing. Approaching the seal, passing both Ophelia and Alexander, he reaches out, his fingers gently brushing against the seal, his face a stone cold mask.