High Priest

What is your name?

I'm blindfolded, but not deaf. My hands are tied around a wheelchair, so is my feet. I can sense multiple people around me, walking in circles.

One

One. My name is One.

They took me by surprise from J-MEF. Just a day after two representative from Milium shot each other, suddenly a person from the government is pulling me back to my hometown. I complied without resistance, as they might use me in ways I would rather not imagine. The last thing I remember is me getting off my car and being escorted by a bunch of people. They are dressed in a religious, priest-like clothes, unmistakable even by a commoners like me.

It has been twelve hours since then, and they are still holding me captive.

These people around me are the high priests of Milium, an expert of a man-made religion. This situation doesn't feel right, but I have no choice other than to agree to their treatment. Either this, or death.

High Priest

Can you see my face through the blindfold?

One

I can't.

High Priest

Can you count the fingers that I'm holding up?

One

I can't.

High Priest

Can you count how many of us in this room?

One

I... I can... There are nine of you.

They start to murmur between themselves, with some of them patting my head while chanting a strange spell. I can sense all nine of them even behind this blindfold. They look like a floating, burning, blue flame. This is the first time I have ever experienced this. It feels odd, invigorating, it makes me fill fulfilled.

High Priest

We have done it. Those children sacrificed for the gods, they did answer us with this woman.

High Priest Number Two

The spike in mana production is worth it. Those sinners will not know any better of the cause, before its too late. We won the game my brothers.

To the next level.

Together the other eight priests exclaimed the same sentence.

Other Priests

To the next level!

One!

One!

One!

One!

I don't understand what they are saying. Those are some very revealing points. Killing children and manipulating the mana production. This doesn't make sense, there's no reason to do that. I know for a fact that we are not in any crisis for mana. We barely use it in our everyday life and mostly use circuit boards and computers instead for the industry. Also, killing children is uncharacteristic for them to do. Our government might be cruel, but murdering your future citizen is such a bizarre action. Without any children, there will be no future to govern in the first place.

High Priest

Brothers, we must go to the chamber. The stability in mana location all across J-MEF is destabilizing. This is a perfect opportunity to activate the prophecy.

Other Priests

The prophecy!

My wheelchair starts to move. Someone behind me is pushing it towards, what I presume to be, the chamber. One of them is walking along beside me grabbing my hand as if it will go away from him.

High Priest

Oh yes the prophecy. Do you know what the prophecy is about, Miss One?

Miss One

No, I do not.

High Priest

Exactly! No one other than the Falsch family, the only surviving royalty in Ha, and us priests know about the prophecy. Those mere mortals down there, your friends, your family, the lot, they are nothing in the face of the prophecy. But you Miss One are a special.

You don't have the blood of royals. Neither you have their kind of money. I also doubt you are as smart as the Falsch family. But there is one thing that you, only you possess. There is a mutation that affects your brain, something that we have been searching for since the era of Erste Falsch, the first in Falsch bloodline.

Tell me, isn't it weird that everyone around you looked like a floating blue flame? That is not something you can train to do. It's impossible to see through the blindfold, yet you did.

Did you not realize Miss One? You are extremely attuned to mana. Those flames you see are our souls, tis written in a secret book by Erste himself.

Quoting the book, "Mana is the soul of this world. The soul of this world in turn, became mana". Those sacrifices we did, the people we have processed and killed, they are just a catalyst to bring your power out.

One

You mean...

High Priest

Yes Miss One. There are hundred of thousands of children that have died, even after the so called "Dark Sunday", to make sure you are performing at the top of the scale. That special soul looking sight of yours is but a symptom of your true abilities. Mark my words, you are going to change the world for the better. Everyone will be happier after this, I can guarantee it.

One

No...

High Priest

YES! YOU MUST WELCOME IT MISS ONE, IT IS INEVITABLE!

Can't you see, everyone around the world merely extract the minimum amount of benefit out of the magic system. We should be able to exploit much more than just boring ass utilitarian shit like levitating vehicles. They are limited by their feeble realistic imagination and script making.

But you don't have that limit. You are better than just a bunch of symbol strung together. This special abilities of yours can transfer an image in your imagination to real life by the help of our sacrifices.

Soon, the mana extraction in J-MEF will slowly move towards us. Yes, the mana pool themselves will literally move towards us. They are alive you see, just like a person would be. Soon, it will be hard for them to keep monopolizing the rule of mana procurement. Soon, they will know what war truly looks like.

One

But the war...

High Priest

THE WAR IS NECESSARY MISS ONE! Death, carnage, conflict, and chaos is the food that we give so the god may accept us. Mana and soul, remember that. They are an abstract entity that amalgamates the behavior and feelings of the dead. The large mana pool around J-MEF stays there not because it's easy, but because it's hard for everyone involved to keep a neutral and straight faces every time someone talk about trading and splitting the mana extracted from the underground.

These sick and beautiful aspect of our world gladly move, slow and steady, towards any location that treat people wrongly. Entertaining them with famine and injustice all these years through our people have regrettably taken a toll to our conscious. But we will do everything just to wake you up.

This is not good. They are using me for something unknown, and most definitely evil. Killing one hundred thousand children is enough to convince me that this is something much worse than that. I can't escape this. I'm tied up. My eyes shuted up. I can't see, yet I can see. This is not going to end well, whatever it is.

The wheelchair stops, the immediately after that, someone is pulling the blindfold off my eyes. I can see now, just like usual. The first person I see is a man, staring into my eyes, with a blank expression.

High Priest

Pleased to meet you, Miss One. Welcome to our first and only ritual chamber. I hope you will enjoy your stay.

This man is him. That unmistakable birth mark around his eye. The current king of Milium. The ever elusive, ever knowing god, Dritte Falsch.