The lord of life and death

Albus woke up with a headache. He cried softly in pain, felt someone hammer his head, and held his head with his hands, trying to soothe his pain. " Why am I having a headache?" Albus thought, then suddenly remembered last night.

He recalls that after leaving Glenn's grandfather's house, he was walking with worry toward his home. His thoughts were occupied with the worry of the followers of the Evil Gods. He entered an alley, a shortcut to his home. Halfway down the Alley, he felt a shock on his head, and his vision went blank. He felt unconscious.

Recalling the memory, Albus quickly opens his eyes and surveys his surroundings. He finds himself in a prison cell filled with four other people knocked unconscious. Three sides are walls of stone, and the front side is a wall of iron bars. Observing the surroundings with his eyes, he guesses he is in a cave.

" How did the kidnapper bring me outside Torian?" Albus's mind tries to recall the names of enemies he tries to guess if any of his enemies were connected to high-level people in the city. Because without their help, he cannot be brought outside the City, unconscious without the guard noticing.

" Maybe they can bring me outside the city? but they cannot bring four other people with me"

"Let's see if any guards are outside."

Albus sticks his head in the gaps of the iron bar and moves his head left and right to see if anyone is outside but the dark environment makes it difficult to see the end of the cave to his left and right.

"I think besides me there are other cells beside this cell. Let's try with the power of mind."

 He closes his eyes and spreads his power of the mind and a picture of a 10-meter radius from him. There are 2 cells on both sides of his cell holding 5 people each. He also notices divine runes flashing in the walls and Iron bar. He recognized the arrangement of the runes.

" Divine power suppressing rune." The runes suppress the divine power in the body.

" That's why I see no guards guarding the prison."

He starts to think who can kidnap so many people?

"From the length of the corridor, I think there are more than five cells."

" Looking at the surroundings, I think I am not captured by guards of the city and not in an official prison."

" Then who can be?"

" Slavers? I heard many high-rank tree spirits are connected to human slavers."

" But I do not think is them."

" After, entering the city I did not hear any news of people's disappearance. So many people were captured the same day as me then."

" There are more than 25 people captured, It's impossible to bring so many people outside."

" Then he recalls, that Torian's gates are closed because of the birth of the original Tree Spirit. Then I am not outside the city. Some forces dug a cave inside the city."

As Albus is thinking about who can be behind this, he hears footsteps in the corridor outside the cell. From the sound of footsteps, he figures out two pairs of footsteps. And hears them talking.

He hears a Man speaking," Do we need to wake them up?"

Then a Woman answers," No need, after walking they will cause commotion, which will cause disturbance for the bishop to set up the ritual."

Hearing this Albus returns to his position before he wakes up and starts acting unconscious. Albus feels the two people enter the 10-meter radius of his mind's power. 

The man spoke again," I do not know why the bishop agreed to act with the followers of the God of Insects."

Hearing the name of the God of Insects, Albus is in shock, and hears the woman's voice," I heard from Bale that it was order from the pope."

The man replies, "Really, then they are lucky." 

After this Albus did not hear the woman reply, after a few seconds the footstep also disappeared. He sits up with shock in his eyes, " God of Insects come back from the dead."

-----

The Man and Woman walk out of the prison. 

The woman with a thoughtful look on her face," There are 48 people in the prison, will they be adequate for the sacrifice."

Man hearing the woman beside him, frowns," I do not know." as they walk on the cave corridor. 

They enter another Cavern and stop. In front of them, a human blocks their path.

The man frowns at the human, he hates humans because his mother was captured as a slave from the endless forest. Sold to a viscount, who is his father.

He was born as a half-tree spirit and was abused after he was born. When he reaches 14 years old, with the help of his mother he escapes from the castle and to the Endless Forest. After reaching Endless Forest, He told the guards guarding the forest about his mother and asked to rescue her. 

But no one rescued his mother, he was sent to a village on the outskirts to live. He prayed to the Goddess to bless him with divine power, so he could become a professional. But his prayer went unanswered. He then tried to become a potionist and an alchemist but he failed. So, he visits many groups that promise extraordinary power to half-tree spirit.

But all the groups turn out to be fake. He had given up hope to rescue his mother and revenge against his father and his family. And then 5 years ago, he was visited by the bishop. And then rest is history and now he is a follower of the Evil God of spores. 

And he climbs from the first realm of spore seed to the second realm of Spore Man. When he reaches the fourth ream of Spore spirit, he will able to rescue his mother and his revenge. But now he has to work with the human in front of him who is a follower of the God of Insects.

"What do you want?"

The human is unfazed by his behavior," My insects are hungry, I want a prisoner to feed my insects." 

And he noticed a fly flew out of the human's mouth and flew toward the human's hand and enter inside his clothes through his sleeve.

He unfazed by this calmly replies," You have to ask permission from the Bishop If you want to feed on the prisoners."

The human snorted and turned around to enter another corridor leading to the cavern where the Bishop was getting ready for the ceremony.

Ree beside him with hatred dripping from her voice," I hate humans." 

Man nods," Me too but for now he and his group are with us."

Ree nods," Let us report the situation of the prisoners to the Bishop."

And they follow behind the human. After some walking down, they emerge in a larger cavern. This cavern was not built by them but was already formed by nature. 

In the middle of the cavern, a river vein flows. There are two ways to enter the Cavern from the river ahead of them and from the cavern they dig upward to Torian City. 

He searches for the Bishop among the crowd. The cavern is filled with members of his group and the followers of the evil god of insects.

Ree," Jack, There is the Bishop." he follows Ree's finger and finds the bishop other side of the river standing with the head of the followers of the evil god of insects.

They started walking to the bishop and crossed the bridge to the other side. When they reach Bishop, they find him talking with Marcello. So they stood there, heads down, kept quiet, and listened to the conversation of the Bishop and Marcello.

Bishop, "Did our informant tell you how many and what realm people our Princess brings?"

Marcello," There are 36 Life Spirit Guards who are in a third realm with their captain in the fourth realm. Bishop with 12 elite priests and an elder in the fifth realm."

Bishop thought for a few seconds turn toward the leader of followers of the God of Insects," Kaker, What's your opinion?"

Kaker moved his eyes from his men who drawing the sacrifice ritual on the ground," Frank, except the elder in the fifth realm rest are not any problem with combined forces."

Bishop nods agreeing with Kaker," But we do not know If there is only 1 fifth realm or more inside the city."

Kaker," If your information is accurate that the royal family obstructs novel families from meeting the original tree spirit and coming to Torian before its birth then I think for an original tree spirit the royal family will not sent from the three-fifth realm."

Bishop annoyed Kaker questioning his information, " Our information is correct the royal family is getting weaker, and the noble families are challenging the status of the royal family."

Kaker," Then why they can obstruct the novel families?"

Bishop explains," Royal family is still the strongest family with the largest number of sixth realm and fifth realm, but most of them left the divine continent for the other two continents."

"They only care of their strength but they cannot let their descendant lose their throne of the empire. But for 500 hundred years no fifth realm power is not from the royal family inside the endless forest."

"And the birth of original tree spirit is best of both worlds for them an original tree after birth will be in the fourth realm and with a little practice will advance to the fifth realm." 

Kaker," Then the royal family wants the original tree spirit to join their family. For that, they have to the tree spirit owe a favor to them. The original tree spirit to be born needs magic energy but the divine continent does not contain any magic energy. The royal family will win a bargain by providing the original tree spirit magic energy required for their birth. Your group causing commotion to harm the original tree spirit may be also in their plan." 

Bishop nods with a smile on his face," Yeah, but they are not aware of the resurrection of your God and your group joining us." 

And then both of them start laughing, thinking they will sacrifice the entire city to their Gods. And then they will be awarded by their Gods.

Marcello watches both of them laughing because the city is not aware of the followers of the God of Insects. Hesitant calls, "Bishop."

Bishop gives Marcello an annoyed look for breaking his daydream, " What?"

Marcello," Bishop, the city knows about the followers of God of Insects."

Kaker," How? Do we have a traitor in our midst"

Marcello, "No. The city guard discovered all the villagers of a village murdered. And an alchemist figures out the massacre is caused by the followers of the Evil God of Insects."

Hearing an alchemist discover their massacre which may create a new problem for their plan, he angrily shouts," Our God when he recovers his strength, will kill the God of Alchemy first."

His words shocked him Why the God of Alchemy and not the other four Gods who were responsible for killing the God of Insects?

The Bishop curiously," Your enemy should not be the four gods, God of Alchemy raised his throne after your God had fallen."

Kaker scoffed at the four gods and took all the credit," The Four Gods were not able to kill our Lord, but the God of Alchemy, He did not become a God then found a way weaken our Lord. He then exchanges this information with the four gods with the promise they will obstruct him when he raises his throne in the sky.

Bishop nods he is curious how the God of Alchemy weakens the God of Insects and then remembers that if the Church of Life knows that the God of Insects is revived. The church will send more men to Torian to confirm the information and foil the plan of God for insects. So he cannot recover his strength. Thinking of this his face turns serious, "Kakar, To confirm your news, the church of Life will surely send Archbishopes here. More than three, 5th realm powerhouse will decrease the success rate of our plan."

Kaker unfazed hearing his and from his pocket, a Golden beetle statue. Look at it reverently and show it to the Bishop," See this, This is the son of our Lord was sealed 10,000 years ago. We unseal the holy son bought it with us. There is no way for our plan can fail."

The Bishop looks at the Golden Beetle statue with fear in his eyes. It looks like any ordinary Statue made from Gold but he can feel the frightening power imiting from it. Which makes him know it's alive and his body screaming to run far away from it. He controls his body instinct and without showing any fear in his face speaks," If you have a holy son, Why did you need our help?"

Kaker," Our Holy son is not fully recovered and can only display the strength of a step demigod. And he is sleeping most of the time to recover."

The Bishop nods that anybody sealed for 10,000 years will not be able to display their full strength," Before our plan starts can he wake up from his sleep."

Kaker nods, "Yes, but he needs sacrifices."

The Bishop turns to Ree and Jack standing some distance ahead, "Jack, How many people do we have in the prison?"

Jack lifted his head, "48, Bishop."

Bishop turns to Kaker," Will they do?"

Kaker nods with hesitation he is unsure this is the first time after the holy son was unsealed they will wake him up, " It's ok."

Bishop nods," Then this ritual is not needed."

Kaker," No, Let them build we will need some cannon fodder, We have plenty of time to capture more tree spirits."

Bishop, "Marcello, send your men to capture more tree spirits from the city."

Marcello," Yes bishop." he turns and walks away.

Bishop, "Jack and Ree take some men and bring the prisoners here."

Jack and Ree also acknowledge the bishop and turn to gather some members and return to the prison.