Chapter 1101 Setting Ou
Looking around at the room that had been his home for more than two years, Jonah didn't really know how to feel.
He still remembered the first time he had seen it. After the long journey from Angaria during the entirety of which he had been confined to one room, he had found himself here, at the doorstep, with a priest accompanying him.
He had been told that although he had changed sides and finished the task assigned to him to prove his loyalty, he still had to climb up the ranks of the Church to prove his worth.
Hence, this was even the first glimpse of the Mainland that he had gotten, and that first night had been spent missing the land that he had grown up on.
The pain of parting had been nothing new to him. After all, he had endured for years while nursing all the hate for the king of the erstwhile Kingdom of Lanthanor who was the reason behind the death of his family, but still, the pangs of longing that he felt for his disciple had still struck him hard.
He had been thrust into task after task after that, with each testing his resolve and making him work as hard as he could if he wanted to keep up. He had learned secrets and grown in power faster than he had ever imagined possible, but amidst it all, not a single day went by when he didn't think of his home, his disciple, or his family.
The room was large, with three areas. There was a small bedroom, a room with a large table that had many odd materials lying around, and finally a meeting room to be used if anyone came to greet him. The largest of them was the second one, where he had often sat and conversed with Daneel whenever it had been possible.
Now, he was going to leave it all behind and finally go back to where he had come from… but all that filled him with was dread.
Ever since that day when his mind had been flipped through by that Saint as simply as if it were but a piece of parchment lying on the floor, he had been convinced that if that individual decided that he should step in, Angaria was doomed no matter what his disciple did.
There was only so far that talent, however absurd, would take him, and the power of that man had been something that was akin to the unchangeable will of nature.
The only thing that had kept him going was that it was a known fact throughout the Church that none of the Saints could move as their force was currently one of the strongest on the Mainland.
Here, the higher one rose, the harder they would fall. For the past few decades, the Church had continuously been amassing so much strength that it had surpassed even older forces and taken them by surprise, but the buzz all over the cities nearby was that its fall was near.
Perhaps there was some truth to this because Jonah had checked the records and the Church was being more thorough with the continents that were available to be conquered than it had ever been. In the past, there had been some cases where continents that had seemed as powerful or troublesome as Angaria had been left behind to look for others that might be weaker, but now, each and every one of those present on the list was being pursued.
Was the Church trying to obtain as many sources of power as possible before they were attacked?
Jonah didn't know whether he would ever find out, as he had a feeling that he might not be returning from the journey they were setting out on.
It had started when the Bishop had informed him in the coldest tone he had ever heard that he should begin to pack as they were going to be leaving out, and then, itself, he had suspected that she might have already written his fate in her mind.
All of the formations that she had carved onto his bones on that day were still present, so he was completely hers to kill or maim or torture.
If they lost and somehow, Angaria survived, she might kill him out of spite.
If they won and Angaria was wiped out, she might decide to fulfill her promise from before and kill him after he saw the destruction of everything he loved.
Either way, Jonah's future seemed grim, but he was happy about one thing: he was at least going to get one last glimpse of his homeland.
He had stopped fearing death long ago, itself, so it was easy to shrug away these thoughts and close the door.
The short walk to the feet of the Saint where he was supposed to report to was spent looking around and memorizing as much as he could.
When he arrived, he saw that most of it was empty. But before he could even form a thought, he felt a sharp pain in his back that made him stumble forward and turn around.
"You really took your time. Come with me."
The frosty words of the man who had returned to his duties with a vengeance made Jonah frown, but he only bent to pick up the small bag of his belongings that had fallen.
The right-hand man of the Bishop had never liked him, and of course, that dislike had turned into pure hatred due to that incident in the library before. It even seemed as if he wanted to kill Jonah and get it over with, but because he didn't dare do so without being given permission, he was satiating himself by using every possible chance to constantly harass him.
As he turned away and began to walk in a certain direction, Jonah nodded and began to follow the man as they headed to the gargantuan ship left in the area, which was floating in the air.
It was a ship, of sorts. It was cuboidal in shape, with all four of the edges on top ending in stylized spears of intertwining metal that were each at least 10 feet long.
The entire thing was easily large enough to fit 10,000 people inside. It was about 1300 feet(400 m) long and half again as much wide, and when Jonah had first seen it a few days ago, his shock had known no bounds.
It seemed to be completely made of an ivory colored metal that was apparently a secret alloy of the Church. The top half of the cuboid housed all the passengers, and as they started to near it, he stared at the flowing lines used to write its name, 'Saintess Ahora', and the holy images of the Church all around it that showed Saint Rectitude and his story.
Multiple buildings arose out of the surface of the cuboid, in which he knew the primary quarters were located. This was only supposed to be a ship meant to transport individuals, so there were no weapons that could be seen, but of his knowledge, it was equipped with all sorts of defensive and offensive measures that would show themselves when needed.
If the bottom half had also been normal, Jonah would simply have thought of it as an incredible feat of engineering. However, it was the strangeness of what was visible when one got past the pretty top half that would make any Angarian look at the ship, and gasp.
The bottom half of the cuboid had a large hollowed out portion in which a miniature sun could be seen burning in all its glory. In fact, that first time, Jonah had even been blinded due to its glare, so knowing better now, he had averted his eyes from its brilliance.
Half of the sun was visible outside, and the other half was inside the hollowed out portion of the ship. On both sides of it, the four edges on the bottom had small orbs that also seemed to be burning, but with a flame that was the same color as the ship.
All in all, it was both a foreign and bewildering construct that Jonah entered now by stepping on the teleportation formation on the floor a few hundred meters away from it.
He knew that the rest of the area was empty because the three waves of the Church's army had already set out. They were tasked with clearing the way for the commanding officers of the Church and with getting a lay of the land before the war began.
He directly appeared in the war room, where all of those who had witnessed the grand failure of the Bishop's previous plan were present.
They only glanced at him when he arrived, and because the Bishop seemed to be busy pondering on the map of Angaria that was floating in the middle of the room, he sat on an empty chair without disturbing her.
The one who had brought him did the same, and because Jonah had a moment alone, to himself, he prayed.
Out of desperation, he prayed for many things. He prayed for a disaster to kill half the Army of the Church before they arrived at the doorstep of Angaria, as this was possible if the church was supremely unlucky. He prayed for some force, any force on the Mainland to attack right now, so that the Army of the Church would have to be called back.
He even prayed for ludicrous things like the Bishop suddenly dying due to unknown reasons and leaving the war leaderless and thus, weak, and he was only a step away from praying for even something absurd like her falling in love with someone and leaving the Church altogether.
When he felt the floor below him hum, which was the signal that the ship was getting ready to leave, the Bishop finally spoke, but even as he heard her voice, he did not stop his prayers.
"And so it begins, Jonah Castle. And so it begins. Come, sit with me, so that I can fulfill my promise. Commanders, go get some rest. The attack of the first wave will commence when we arrive in six hours. The holiness of the Saint will see us victory. Saintess Ahora, go forth!"