The Hated Hero: Sigil-Powered Warrior-Chapter 35: More Than Just a Massive Axe

As Immanuel, Vicar Starseeker, and Dean Peterson walked together towards the church’s entrance, the construct walked on its own, stopping next to the church. It then folded multiple times, seemingly turning itself inside-out, never stopping until it completely resembled a wooden house.

Amazing.

The thick wooden doors of the church crunched and creaked as the Dean pushed them wide open.

"Maier," Vicar Starseeker called out.

The voice snapped Immanuel back to reality, and he caught up with the clerics instantly.

The inside of the stone church looked just as old as the outside, and just as bare. To Immanuel’s surprise, there were multiple clerics moving about when they entered. This place is tiny compared to the Cathedral! Where do they all live?

As though the Dean had read Immanuel’s mind, he remarked, "Don’t mind the clerics, Immanuel. The boundaries of this entire structure go way beyond the boundaries you saw outside."

"Underground chambers?" Immanuel let his assumption known.

"Correct." There was a brief pause before he continued. "The church building goes all the way to the other side of the island. A field there is where all who have died here are buried, their abandoned homes serving as their tombstones."

"I see. The entire time I thought you live alone here. Were there any clerics on the island when you ended up here after the wreck?"

Clerics in white robes surrounded a fountain smaller than the one at the Cathedral. Some of them studied different household objects while others inscribed symbols on household objects passed to them. Magic item crafters?

"Black monks used to run this place at that time, then shortly after their Abbot ordained me a cleric, they were moved elsewhere, and clerics took over. I’m not sure of the details but bad blood and politics aren’t involved."

It seemed the Dean’s office held no secret chambers unlike Hierophant Hawking’s. "I am the second Dean of the Island," Dean Peterson said as he took his seat.

Immanuel took a vacant seat in the room, and so did Vicar Starseeker. He turned to the Vicar and finally asked her the question that had been in his mind for some time now, "What are we here for?"

Vicar Starseeker straightened herself and responded, "As you could already tell by now, a lot of magic items are being made in this place every single day, and the Dean himself is in possession of many magic items, many of which he made himself." 𝐟𝐫𝕖𝗲𝘄𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝕧𝐞𝚕.𝕔𝕠𝐦

Immanuel nodded.

"You see, Immanuel, you’re not the only one with a devious solution to your problem. Hierophant Hawking also did."

Vicar Starseeker held up two fingers of one hand. "We need two things from Dean Peterson’s collection. One, the copying glass. Second, the document verifying glass."

"Copying?"

"Hierophant Hawking actually believed in the possibility that someone else could have signed your divorce papers while you were away during the war, and the only way to find out is through the use of the document verifying glass."

Immanuel had seen a document verifying glass in the past. No different than an ordinary spyglass, these reveal the true identities of people who have written and signed documents. It also verifies the originality of artwork.

"So where does the copying glass come in?"

"In case we lose one copy of the access document, all is not lost. That means we’re making copies beforehand. Nothing more than that, actually."

"Great idea."

Vicar Starseeker nodded at Immanuel with a smile. Immanuel thought she was hiding something, but chose not to pry. Then, turning to the Dean, she asked, "You still have with you those things I mentioned, right?"

"Yes, Vicar."

Immanuel raised a hand. "Dean, would you have any way to get this axe examined?"

"Yes, I have people who can do that."

Great.

"I also lost my disguise cloak. Would you happen to have one?"

"You’re in luck, I do."

Hearing those words, Immanuel struggled not to jump where he was seated.

—

The following day, Immanuel handed over Justus’s axe to one of the clerics seated around the fountain. When the man reacted with confusion, Immanuel informed him of his intent to get the weapon examined of its magical properties.

Then Immanuel helped Dean Peterson and Vicar Starseeker in carrying the copying glass into the Dean’s office from storage. Having not seen one before, Immanuel was surprised to learn that it was a large magic item, not one that could fit in one’s pocket.

Once the copying glass was in the room, Vicar Starseeker took the document out of the scroll case and placed it on one of two panels. A transparent glass panel flattened the document.

Below the document, a crystal lamp lit up. After some time, it flashed once, and an exact copy of the document appeared on the next panel, under a glass panel.

"And that’s how this device works, Immanuel."

In the middle of Immanuel’s admiration for the accurately produced copy of the access document, someone knocked on the door of the Dean’s office and opened it.

It was the same cleric Immanuel handed Justus’s axe to. He held it with both hands.

"Maier?" he called out. "I’ve just finished examining your weapon, sir. I need to speak with you about what I found."

—

"From what I know of weaponsmiths, this one was likely the work of a master. You said you picked this up from a powerful enemy, yes?"

"Yes." Immanuel nodded.

"Well," the cleric straightened. "Lucky you, then. Anyway, so...

"Assuming you asked me about this weapon, that meant you were never hit or wounded by this thing at all?"

"No, why do you ask?"

"I found its blade to be cursed with a bleeding spell, which triggers with every successful strike on flesh for as long as it is held."

Nasty. I couldn’t imagine myself fighting Justus without sigils of my own to use.

"The axe also seems to have another magical property I just couldn’t identify."

"That’s not good. Who knows it might be another curse, but harms another wielder who is not the intended user of the axe. What can be done about it, I wonder?"

"Ah, well," the cleric scratched his head. "I should have also said that magical properties that we Crafters couldn’t identify are those only discoverable by the user attuning themselves to the object, so I suggest you take time to do this until you discover for yourself what it is."

"And how do I go about doing that?"