Chapter 14

The fateful day of Kira's supposed execution had arrived. He hadn’t learnt much besides the date because it was stated before him and the fact that he was never to be left alone.

Since the moment Demen announced his fate in front of him he had been left with a single guardsman. Every twelfth hour a new armed man would swap places with the previous and kept their gaze firmly on Kira as well as any entrances and escape routes to the room.

His chains and restraints were tended to every hour to make sure the chances of escape were kept at an impossible level. The lack of food or water also seemed to take its toll over him due to the talisman on his body.

The sealing tags and mana limiting restraints on his body continuously drained him of energy which meant that he was burning fuel on the double. Kira was looking the worse for wear but still remained strong. Those conditions in the church paled in comparison to his days in Sator where he endured seemingly endless nights of hunger and the occasional beatings after being caught for stealing.

“Hey…how much longer is it now?”

“…”

“It’s rude to stay quiet isn't it; hey I’m talking to-”

“Shut your mouth Demon, I won’t allow myself to fall to the level of speaking with a devil!!”

This was one of the only things that could distract his mind from the feeling of his stomach eating itself out, not even able to sleep because of the pain. He spent a good few hours taunting and annoying the guards as best he could.

Not that it amounted to much, even with a few witty comments thrown to him; the guard would only ignore Kira or silence him through words. If Kira had been a regular person then he would have probably been beaten or physically forced to stay quiet but because he was an unknown enemy to them, he was treated as such.

No one under any circumstances was allowed to get close to him or touch him until the execution, this however did not extend to conversation. That much was a personal preference that all of them personally agreed to.

“How long has it been now, almost a full day? The sun has already passed the rising point so it is probably around mid-day? Damn this stupid colourful glass, I can’t make out the sun from in here!”

“Don’t you dare speak ill of the holy church, you scum! A demon like you could never grasp the sheer importance of the house of worship!”

“I guess I don’t, what do you people even worship anyways?” Kira asked pessimistically.

“What would this information benefit a de-”

“A demon like me- yes I get it already, you people hate me. The fact that you won’t answer me is probably because you can’t right? I’ll just ask Demen when I see him again, so that someone devoted can answer me.”

That was a sliver of the true power that Kira used to utilize before coming into contact with all this demon and deities business. He had needed to deal with people that antagonised him or hated him because of his strange eye colour, and blaming him for their own problems.

It didn’t take him long to pick up how to deal with those sort of people to get them to do what he wanted, in a sense he thought of himself as a master manipulator but instead he was just highly cunning.

A person doesn’t always need to be liked in order to get others to listen to them, in fact it helps when the opposite is the case. That was the lesson he learned early on in his short life.

The guard slammed his foot down in rage and created a large clunk from the sandals, similar to the childish behaviour one would see with infants throwing tantrums.

“How dare you…I am a follower to the order and a devoted son of its cause!! Don’t look down on me you demon!”

‘All of them are the same; they just place the ‘order’ on some holy level and don’t question it or talk about the details. That’s the sense I have gotten from talking to them.’

Kira gave off a smug grin as he asked the guard. “Then what do you guys follow, if you know so much~”

The guard dropped his defensive stance and began to exclaim out to the ceiling with his hand pressed gently against his chest.

“We serve the true order! The power that our master, father Demen was bestowed with in order to rid this world of the filthy demon!”

‘Bestowed with! I knew it, then that means this is someone else’s power…who?’

“That is challenging enough without those fakes calling themselves Deities. Soon we will rid the world of them as well.”

Kira was lost for words and was left completely bewildered. Their whole faith was built upon wiping out evil creatures along with the beings able to destroy them.

As he was composing himself to speak he noticed a piece of paper glide into his field of view and landed on the guardsman’s robes.

It was the talismans that he saw that Arisa girl using but he wasn’t sure why it was there and who would have sent it.

The guard didn’t even notice it land on him and only seemed to notice after the paper emitted a small crackle of sparks. Blue blitzes of electricity roared over his body and quickly travelled through him, sending him into a stiffened position.

The man soon fell to the ground completely unconscious which sent Kira into a full state of panic. What if someone had come to kill him before the time of his execution? What if a rebellion had started and he was their main bargaining chip? These were some of the few situations flooding his mind.

“Don’t worry I’m not here to hurt you, I am going to get you out of here!” A faint and gentle voice announced behind him.

He turned his head to the side and noticed that Arisa was running up to him with quite the determined expression. It took him by surprise because he had never seen that side of her, she always appeared to be indecisive or apprehensive.

‘What is she doing here, am I saved?’ With that thought in mind Kira quickly shook his head and cleared the star struck feeling rushing over him and returned to his defensive gaze.

“Do you think I’m an idiot, you’re with them aren’t you?” He asked sternly.

‘I need to be sure, there isn't room for doubt moving forward.’