Chapter 1611: Contrasting Practices of Faith

=What is it with mortals always combing faith with personal ideals? Those things never mesh well and always leads to stupid shit being committed in the names of gods whondotn give a flying fuck about them.=

<Untrue,> Pathos countered. <We knew multiple sex deities who gave plenty of flying fucks.>

=That is...so not what I was getting at. In the slightest.=

<Oh, I know what you meant. But I was serious about there being deities who do actually encourage such behaviors. Why else would there be so many gods of war, gods of sex, gods of music, and so forth? Is it not the fault of mortals that they assign ideals to deities of vague dominion when there are others that fulfill the role?>

=I...I feel like this is an argument for people to be more flexible with their faiths.=

<Damn straight!>

...Enough commentary...

"So if you can’t determine if it’s the war hawk or the peace dove who did the dirty deed, do you at least have any additional information I can work with? Otherwise, I’m going to have to charge extra for the information gathering fee," Zhen Liu joked with a jovial tone.

Unfortunately, the joke kind of went over Serena’s head.

"Additional fee? I’m offering you a sacred aether treasure that a literal emperor is waging war over," Serena pointed out with a slightly indignant tone. "What more could you want?"

Before Zhen Liu could reply, pointing out that he was simply being sarcastic, Springerdermain, Frosttusk, and Razorstella answered for him.

[Cash.]

[Gas.]

[Ass!]

Needless to say, this answer threw both Serena and Zhen Liu for a loop.

"Guys, I have no need for cash or ass, since I’m fairly certain I made a promise to not rack up more fiancées or girlfriends," Zhen Liu immediately refuted his kaijin. "No offense, you’re very pretty, but I’m fairly certain I’d cause an international incident or two if I end up with the leader of a country as opposed to the descendant of one."

"None taken; you’re not really my type, to be honest," Serena replied. "You remind me too much of a wild dog. I prefer my men to act more like snakes or cats."

"I have some people I need to introduce to you later," Zhen Liu replied without skipping a beat. "Also, what the fuck is gas in this context?"

[Rare aether medicine,] Frosttusk answered.

"That...actually makes sense," Zhen Liu nodded. "But yes, if you could provide more concrete information on Hulna and Ferroxa, that would be very helpful on who I need to make contingency plans for. Otherwise, this may not go the way you think."

Zhen Liu had also wanted to make a comment about how things actually never went as he anticipated or planned because of his karmic void, but he made sure to keep mum about it...for now at least.

"Well, I don’t have any documents on me," Serena answered. "But...I do have my own personal mental notes about them. Would that work?"

"That’s better than nothing...sure."

"Okay..."

...

Name: Abbot Hulna Doradodawn

Rank: Aether Emperor

Affinity: Fire/Light

Description:

Hulna is the leader of the peace-dove faction on the Council of the Theocracy and is also the leader of the Comforting Hearth Church. Their belief is that there is an innate goodness in every person and that acts of evil or evil behavior is the result of terrible living environments or external factors as a whole.

Hunger drives men to steal.

Abusive relationships lead to sexual deviancy.

Subjugation to anger leads to violent outbursts.

As such, Hulna’s church is the biggest facilitator for soup kitchens, homeless shelters, and free love hostels.

...

"I’m sorry, free love what now?" Zhen Liu asked, making sure he was hearing her correctly.

"Free love hostels. They’re places people can go to receive...ya know...relief? Not necessarily from members of the church, but from each other."

"I...I see..."

"You’d actually be surprised how many people go in just for the sake of cuddling."

"That...that tracks."

....

As for Hulna himself, he was actually originally an orphan that had been personally raised by the previous Abbot.

Once he had become of age, he became a priest and slowly worked his way to the top.

With his charming personality and good looks, Hulna became very popular with the general populace.

...

"Out of everyone on the council, Hulna had actually been one of the most supportive people I knew," Serena said with a sigh. "It wasn’t until that vision and some recent run-ins that I started to get suspicious of the man."

"He does sound like a very nice man." Zhen Liu nodded while keeping a note to have the twins and Blazejudicator check on the man who seemed to be kindness incarnate. "Now what about this second guy, Ferroxa? Do you have a more negative opinion about him?"

"I do...but he’s also someone who has proven himself loyal to the Theocracy too many times to fully doubt."

...

Name: Abbot Ferroxa Vitalist

Rank: Aether Emperor

Affinity: Fire/Metal

Description:

Before becoming the leader of the war hawk faction, before even becoming the leader of the Order of the Warding Hearth, Ferroxa was a soldier from another land.

This land was in a state of constant war, constant bloodshed, and constant death. The fighting was actually so bad that corpses were considered an export of this war-torn country, well, that and mercenaries.

Ferroxa was originally sent out from this hellish land to act as a mercenary for the Sacred Flame Theocracy during the early days of the war with the Erupting Dawn Empire.

It was in these early days that Ferroxa found peace amongst the people, found faith in the church, and eventually became a leading figure in the Order of the Warding Hearth, a group dedicated to acting as the shield for the Theocracy and all of the people who called it home.

...

"Okay, everything about this guy sounds incredibly noble," Zhen Liu pointed out. "What makes you think he’s the guy who might’ve killed your predecessor?"

"Well...there was an...incident during the early days of the war where we had captured a particularly brutal contingent of Erupting Dawn soldiers, whom my predecessor ordered to be imprisoned for their crimes. Ferroxa, however, thought that wasn’t a harsh enough punishment, so he had gone down into the prisons and personally castrated and cauterized all one hundred soldiers."

"Okay...damn..."

"Wait, I’m sorry, I got that slightly wrong," Serena corrected herself. "He castrated and cauterized ninety-nine of them, but the commander he had personally turned into a...burnt potato."

"..."

"..."

"I’m... I’m not even going to ask what the fuck that entails," Zhen Liu said before he could be given an explanation. "I think my imagination can fill in the blanks."

"Fair enough."

[Wait, Director, haven’t you made similar threats before?] Razorstella asked through her mental connection with Zhen Liu. [Like...multiple times?]

’Yes, but I never actually followed through with them,’ Zhen Liu corrected.

[I mean...we could actually do so for once...] Razorstella trailed off.

’Hey, if you’re interested, you and the rest of Mysticlassic are going to be assigned in tailing them.’

[Sweet.]

Unaware of this side conversation, Serena continued the main topic that they were discussing.

"Is that enough information for you to go off of, or did you need more?"

"It’s...a start," Zhen Liu admitted. It’s enough for me to properly delegate who is going to follow whom at least."

To illustrate that he had already given out the instructions to his kaijin, Zhen Liu snapped his fingers, and most of the kaijin in the room had disappeared in preparation for their upcoming assignments.

The only ones left in the room at this time were Frosttusk, Hurricroak, Nepherage, Zhen Liu, and Serena.

"Well, with all that taken care of, I suppose it’s only proper for me to ask the following questions: do you need an escort back home? If not, would you like to stick around and see precisely who had decided to send a spy to chase after you this evening?" Zhen Liu asked. "He should be in the library’s holding cell right about...now."

Snapping his fingers once more, Zhen Liu summoned a display that showed the personal zakos of the Ragnarockers unceremoniously dumping the poor spy bastard they had caught into the aforementioned holding cell.

"Fun fact, the man had a poison pill in his teeth that we had to extract before he had a chance to bite down on it," Zhen Liu explained to Serena. "Meaning whomever sent him really wanted to make sure that their hands were as clean as a whistle."

After being dumped in the holding cell, the captured spy began to attack the bars in hopes of escaping...only to find that his powers were nullified. Shortly after this moment, he then retreated to the other side of his cell, because his neighbors just so happened to be a family of mutated mantis monsters that Zhen Liu still needed to eventually address.

"Well?"