After entering the church, Khristina turned to face the large group before her. To her knowledge, the largest group Lucius had ever called were the Six Heroes of old, to see the amount of people he has gathered this time stunned her a bit. But she shouldn't be in awe right now, her duty as the Oracle was to help guide these new heroes on their path. She shook herself a bit, took a deep breath and began to answer the main questions the group had.

"Well... Now that we're here I guess I owe you an explanation. As you all must know, the God of Light, Lucius, has called upon each and everyone of you to his aid. As it stands, there is much that I cannot share with you right now, but what I can tell you are the specifics. The Fallen Gods, four powerful beings, once brought despair to Grand Gaia. Were it not for the aid of the Six Heroes of Gaia, the world as we know it would've ceased to exist. The Fallen Gods however cannot truly be destroyed, only sealed away and someone of great power has freed them from their prisons." Khristina looked around nervously to see if everyone was still listening.

"Lucius has called upon us to rid Grand Gaia of this powerful entity and to seal the Fallen Gods once and for all. It will be a long and arduous road, but I know that together we can accomplish anything. The Fallen Gods will do whatever it is in their power to destroy us, which is why we must obtain more strength, the same strength that gave the Six Heroes the power to rival the gods themselves." Long speech aside, Khristina smiled at the group.

"I know it is a lot to take in all at once, it was hard for me to understand too... If any of you have questions about all this, I'm more than happy to answer. However, there are some things I cannot share with you at the moment, so keep that in mind." Khristina stood there and waited for the avalanche of questions that the group would bombard her with.

@Solaris @Gareth @TheWindel @KoL @Lucius Cypher @Cloudystar @ryougu

Sert mechanical eyes narrowed as Sert listened to 'Oracle'. This thing called 'oracle' was weird. It seemed to believe in 'things that sert didn't know existed.' That was sert's understanding of their communication between each other.

'Church was mentioned', Sert closed eyes for a second to process word 'church'. Sert's memory flashed a picture of a building nearby Sert had passed earlier. Thus Sert knew 'church' and how to arrive.

As Sert approached Sert heard noise inside. Sert decided Sert had to intimidate whatever was inside to silence it.

Sert stepped inside the church and used his mechanical foot to kick over the first bench into the second bench which banged into the third bench that keeled over the fourth bench. All in all a line of twelve benches were crashed to the floor with a very loud noise. Sert without wasting a second afterwards marched over to a dragon 'thing'.

He turned to face the dragon @Mangrale 'thing' by the wall as Sert was close enough to throw a fist at it, "Leave." Sert commanded the thing.

"E-Excuse me... sir? I know you were hoping to see the Oracle..." spoke up an approaching young girl in service to the church. "I was wondering: Are you perchance interested in becoming a follower of Lucius?" she asked innocently.

"No," Viranti answered, irked slightly because this wasn't the first time he was asked that. "Why do you ask," he decided to inquire, at least wanting to know why, if this is going to continue.

"Hmm? Well i-it's because I have not seen one of your kind before, and if you were one of the chosen champions of Lucius, you likely would have met with the Oracle already and um..." her eyes drew immediately to something on the young dragonute's head, which he immediately took and remembered as the white flower he had picked up from the fields earlier.

"This? This is why?" Viranti seemed confused as he held it in his hands. He thought little of it at the time, but was there some deeper meaning behind flowers like this?

"Yes, it's a calla lily. When I noticed you wearing it I... well, never mind. I'm sorry for disturbing you," she said, embarrassed for jumping to the wrong conclusion and nodding respectfully as she turned away.

"Hold it..." he told her with a weary sigh, the girl turning around anxiously but surprised when she saw the lily being offered to her. "I think it's best if you hold on to it. I don't care for the extra attention," he said, resuming his standoffish demeanor save for the flower held out to the girl. She appeared oddly happy to receive it, bidding him a pleasant farewell.

Viranti paid it little mind and listened intently to who he immediately identified as the Oracle as she explained the nature of the the conflict that involved the summoning of all these individuals including himself. It was quite the tale and he wasn't sure what to make of it. But he had little reason to dismiss her claims outright, himself certainly not in any position to begin to explain what happened to him. It didn't seem like a stretch to reason that there are beings like Lucius, beings of considerable ability and influence. If a number of these "Gods" should rise against Lucius, that would explain why warriors from across the world are chosen to fight for Him. What he couldn't quite fully understand though was: Why was he chosen?

---

All of a sudden, an earthen colored automaton unexpectedly sent the elongated church benches tumbling over each other in a violent display, the harsh dissonant noises of bent and toppling wood furniture very much audible in the sizable hall that lent itself naturally to echoing. It was accompanied within a second by the shocked cries of civilian witnesses at the scene. Viranti wasn't at all expecting this, nor was he expecting the the mechon to turn on him and demand his departure. "What...?!" the dragonute uttered in disbelief, his current circumstances like nothing he would have imagined. "(Growl) Listen you hollow scrap pile! I don't care who or what you think you are! I'll rip you to shreds!" he then yelled threateningly, his hand gripping the handle of his sword. If the robot wanted to fight, he would of course oblige. But if it should come to that, he'll make sure to lure it away from the church.

---

Illium entered the church as the dragonoid responded to his inquiry. Again, he had to force himself to remember that these people weren't anything to him. He swallowed his retort and simply searched for a spot to rest while he waited for the oracle. Her arrival moments later was met with a raised eyebrow from a pew not far from the back of the church.

At times during her spiel, his eyes scrunched up in confusion.

"Wait, why have I been chosen..?", he asked aloud to the oracle. There was no reason why he of all the people he had ever served with couldn't have been chosen. His time in the army was almost up and he was just about to retire before being dragged into all this.

Any answer he would have heard was immediately drowned out by the sound of pews crashing against one another. The red toned dragon-human hybrid was punched and told to leave. Illium may not have cared for these people, but he was still a protector of sorts. His calloused hands grasped around the spear sitting across his lap and he rose from his position while sitting. Years of battle had taught him to be ready for anything, and he assumed a stance so he could spring into action if need be.

Melfenius entered the church with an expression of amusement hidden beneath her hood. How long had it been since she'd been in a church? Not that anyone would let her in one anyway if they knew what she was. Things were somewhat crowded and she stood at the back as the girl explained things. They were to seal the fallen gods. Simple enough. Melfenius never considered not helping, it simply wasn't a question of whether she would, but how she could help. "I will help." Melfenius said simply. Her voice was deep and somewhat rattly, but there was a faint feminine undertone to it. "What do we do first?"

Malkai soon returned for his looting, but didn't turn out much. Seemed like the church wasn't really full of wealth, though the pantry had a fresh wheel of cheese. Taking that and a loaf of bread Malkai arrived just in time to see the end of the Oracle's speech. Malkai had never fought for gods before, and never a threat this big, but none of that particularly perturbed Malkai. He was just being hired to do another job, doing what he does best: Fighting. Leave the religious aspect of it to the clerics.

Stopping by Flan and Lotte the hulking orc offered them cheese and bread as he had a few questions to ask. Mercenary stuff. "What's da pay? Pro-bono iz fine an' all when da dark comes knockin', but no sense in risking our arse fer da world dat don't care two spits." Malkai understood the premise of course, it's not as if he can just ignore these fallen gods running rampant in the world. But that's no excuse for him to risk his life and just be written off as a casualty of chaos. He wants either fame or fortune for his efforts, and if there isn't any to be had than Malkai will just deal with them when he gets around to it.

"An' as boney said, wot do we do first? Go find one dem gods and krump em, or gather up powa? Fine with either, s'long da lootz gud." He said as he stuffed a bit of cheese and bread into his mouth.

---

As fierce as Viranti sounded, he didn't have any experience fighting mechanical beings like Sert before, so when the machine threw a punch in his direction, there was no draw, no glint of intention in the eyes (nor eyes of any discernible kind for that matter), just force as its fist swiftly slammed into the young dragon's barely risen, crossed forearms. Viranti was thrust back into the wall in recoil, Sert immediately pinning him with a bulky forearm against his chest, and its other appendage clenching one of his arms. The red dragon's free hand gripped the robot's forearm in vain as he struggled to free himself. After a second and nothing to show for it, Viranti knew he couldn't keep this up and had to make the next few moments count. "Okay, scrap pile... You want to play?..." he derided in a more guttural voice through a cocky smile, a bright orange glow emanating from his throat as he took a deep breathe. The second after, flames erupted from his mouth, flowing over the robot's front body plate and dramatically heating the metal thereof. "Let's play for real!" Sert flinched backward and loosened his grip, allowing Viranti to free himself and twist the machine's primary offending limb behind its back. Now at the advantage, the former hunter wasted no time in vigorously kicking the automaton in the back and against the same wall, the blunt and savage percussion reverberating throughout the building. Sert turned immediately, his arm quickly arcing sideways to meet his attacker, but finding no purchase as the dragon had jumped back and then surged forward with all his strength, his fist driving into Sert's front plating weakened minutely by the fire breathe, leaving a fair dent in its hull. The force of the hit, blew out nearby candles and from the sound, you'd thing Sert was hit with a war hammer. To the dragon's exhausted alarm the robot rose, but then appeared to "deactivate", dropping with a loud thud to its knees and remaining completely motionless afterwards. Viranti looked at his opponent, then across the church with a sense if ecstatic triumph. But at seeing only the shocked and dismayed faces of church members and maybe even a few of the would be heroes, his jubilant expression gradually fell until he just felt out of place, seeing nothing left to do but carry the exceedingly heavy automatic instigator on his back and out of the building, where the town guards waited to take it away for the time being. After his business was done, Viranti quietly resumed waiting as per usual against a section of wall near where the altercation had taken place.

---

@Lady Athena @Mangrale @Lucius Cypher
Khristina was a little relieved that she didn't need to answer much for the group, at least not right now. She was about to answer before she noticed the orc had looted a little of the church, she knew he was wandering around but... And before she could think any further on that a crash came at the front of the church when the robot from earlier kicked some of the benches over and proceeded to pick a fight with the dragonoid that was with the group. "Ok... Can we all just calm down please... Not here... Please." But her words fell on deaf ears when the two continued to fight.

The dragonoid ultimately spewed fire at the robot and the embers ended up scorching the wall behind it. "No! Stop!" Khristina called to the two fighters. Her grip on her staff was getting shaky. "Oh dear... Neph I think we may need to back up a bit..." Loralei told as she followed her own suggestion and backed away from Khristina.

Khristina gripped her staff in both hands and slammed the end down on the floor, the resulting sound was loud enough for everyone to hear. "Now listen here! Lucius didn't gather you all together just so you could do what you want! This is a sacred place and you will show it the respect it deserves! And to answer Mal-Mal's question, no... There is no pay for this, this isn't some mercenary job, this is a quest to stop the Fallen Gods before its too late. And for those of you who are against going on a suicide mission, then the door is right there. Bet you you'll die anyway, the Fallen Gods will kill anyone who has had contact with Lucius, even from a mere dream or vision. Now do you want to leave and die a random nobody? Or do you want to stay and die a hero? And I can assure you, I don't plan on anyone dying!" Was she being a bit hard? Maybe, but she couldn't just sit still when stuff like this was happening. She didn't become Lucius's Oracle for no reason.

"Sounds like it's going to be our problem whether we like it or not. I just hope we can do it ourselves. If we have to get the kingdom's alliances, that's just going to make things all the worse for us." Rochelle said as she ignored the bedlam around her. She didn't exactly like a militant system, but if these people can't be disciplined enough not to pick fights with each other than they're better off without. Chances are that people like that robot would just turn to the darkside and betray them when it's most inconvenient. When the oracle made a big declaration Rochelle held onto her hat and looked back at her. "It'd be nice to know what sort of a plan you have. Where we heading first and where are we needed? And what sort of help can we expect? Traveling ain't easy and it'd be nice if we had some help along the way. Maybe horses for traveling, food for the road, a dry place to sleep, that sort of thing. It'd be real sad if any of us die because of cold weather of all things." As she said this the gunslinger took her hat off and dusted off the dirt.

@Darkmoon Angel

So many things had happened in the small span of about a few minutes. People were with them and then suddenly not. A whole range of shady characters thought it was actually acceptable to pillage and loiter a church. Truthfully the same could be said for Lotte but she at least had a brain to realize doing something in the Chapel of Lucius would no doubt ban her from the holy land permanently. So as much as she wanted to, she kept her hands free from anything explosive to use.

Not really wanting to pay attention to the others for fear of confusing herself, Lotte instead turned to listen to the Oracle detail the mission they were to partake in. Though she was being spoken to; with a sharp grin, she turned to Ryuuga and said, “Whoah, whoah, people get hurt from explosions? Wow…I never knew that. Thanks mister! Name’s Lotte by the way!”

Whether she was being sarcastic or not was hard to judge because soon enough she was turning right back to the Oracle. Such as it were that the woman gave the usual explanation that came with these things. Save the world, gather a band of heroes…with the floor open to questions, Lotte was the first to raise her hand.

“Excuse me Miss Oracle? If we’re dealing with omnipotent primordial forces…er, why did Lucius even bother to pick us? I’m just wondering why-”

Yet her response would be interrupted by the Oracle raising her voice and giving them all a stern look. And who could blame her? People were doing all sorts of stupid shit in a church no less. Lotte narrowed her eyes when she caught Malkai rounding the corner, no doubt to probably loot. Would she stop him? Nope; it was his own dummy fault if he got caught and kicked out of the church.

---

Ryuuga paid close attention to the oracle's speech until he was distracted by Lotte. "Whoah, whoah, people get hurt from explosions? Wow…I never knew that. Thanks mister! Name’s Lotte by the way!” Interpreting this as a sarcastic remark, Ryuuga frowned. A thought passed 'Well at least she's not going around destroying the church'. While he didn't really care much for the church, it seemed foolish to outright destroy it, since the god it was devoted to had shown itself to the group this morning...Presumably, his sentiment seemed unshared by a good part of the group. He was no saint himself, he'd fished some things out of pockets when he really needed to, but an angry god seemed like an unpleasant foresight to him.

Sighing, Ryuuga sat down on one of the benches that had not been kicked over. Attempting to hide the fact he hadn't heard most of the oracle's dialogue, (until she had to scold the group) Ryuuga decided to cut to the case. "So...I agree with Lotte on the omnipotent gods part, seems kind of hard to deal with. Although 'Hard' never stopped me before, so where are we supposed to go first?" He paused a moment, looked at the group and continued with a sigh. "While I would love to continue the tea party with these... Interesting individuals, I'd much rather try to stop the apparently upcoming end of the world."

The boy observed the dragon fight and was pleased by his performance, the strength of his flames impressed him. "This is going to be an interesting adventure" he thought to himself just as he realized that the oracle was talking with some of the others and that he may be missing out on information. He jerked slightly startled quickly composing himself in order to come up with a useful question though all his brain could conjure was a loud and abrupt"When do we start?".

After the utterance, he yawned loudly out of nervousness, afterwards walking to one of the fallen pews removing his travel pack and sitting down to rest his back. He thought a few seconds more "The darkness has eyes everywhere you said... where are these eyes and whom do they belong to" he inquired now being calmed down. He stared into space with empty eyes waiting for a response while reminiscing about his home.

@Darkmoon Angel

Hiding behind the bravest looking folk, which was Rochelle in this case, caused Claire to shiver a bit from how violent the others started to become. As more and more people joined in the heinous actions, he/she eventually did her/his best to pick up the pews/benches that were tipped over. Though she/he wasn't able to carry many without getting tired, Claire did try to use a simple water spell she/he knew to lift one last pew/bench up to fix carefully. She/He tries to get up from heaving over from how tired she/he was from helping out or at least trying to. Finally, Claire does siphon out any water messes she/he made from using to pick up the knocked over benches and such, smiling after doing a good day's work.

"All...fixed ma'am! I tried my best, just give me a moment...quite tiring. I'm much better at healing than this hard work...and for the journey, I can definitely help out with supplies and such. Fishing is one of my favorite pastimes and having a...hopefully a decent control of water helps me get fresh water out of dirty water. Though I'm not great at much, I'll do my best."

Sure her/his high pitched voice made it hard for Claire to be identified for either sex, she/he was still looking forward to working with the others who were willing to deal with Claire's predicament and shyness.

@Norschtalen@Solaris@Ryougu@TheWindel

The room was settling down, and although the church staff were tidying up (with even a few of the warriors pitching in) and generally resuming their business, Viranti could tell he had went a measure too far. But at the same time, he had difficulty imagining the situation resolving in any other way. He didn't rot in prison for decades, get abducted just when his freedom was in sight and be dragged into some absurd conflict just to be harassed by some soulless machine. Everyone else didn't seem to want to confront him though, which wasn't what he expected, but he'd take it. He pondered over what the Oracle said. It didn't sound like he had much of a choice if a pointless death was to be avoided. The thought of deities having such a hold on his or anyone's life disgusted him.

In the end, he figured that if he had already been away from his people this long, however long this quest was wouldn't make a huge difference. And by the time he gets back home, he could say he defeated gods. They'll be amazed possibly, after he tries to explain what they are of course. The dragonute didn't care about being a hero, but this quest sounded like a formidable challenge.

"Very well, Oracle. What must we do first?" He cautiously broke away from the wall and, after seeing that the pews weren't suited for him, decided to stand closer to the group, arms still crossed. His sense of smell was returning to him, the perfume finally clearing out of his nostrils. The old man that greeted him stank of blood, and about two others smelled odd. Overall, the rush of scents was a fair shock to the senses, that he rode through as subtly as he could. Still, it didn't help his headache in the slightest, so he had to keep some distance.

Khristina was relieved to see everything calm down, even more so when some of the heroes, including the little elf girl (at least she thought it was a girl). The questions she was asked were mostly just on how they could fight the fallen gods, where they were going, and what dangers were around them. She took a deep breath to calm herself and proceeded to speak.

"Right... To answer your questions on where we are going, we should start with visiting the kingdoms to gather what power we can. And our first stop is Agni, I've already sent a message via nymph to the ruler, telling her to expect our arrival.

And to answer your question on how we will combat the fallen gods, we must gather the same power that the Six Heroes of old obtained, and that involves gathering the hero stones and the Mecha Gods that guard them won't give them up so easily. The fallen gods also have agents all around the kingdoms who will do anything in their power to stop us from obtaining the stones. We will have to work together if we hope to defeat them.

I only know of a few agents, but I know that if we watch each others backs, they won't defeat us. Now... If that is all the questions you have, then I suggest we all rest here in Edivid, tomorrow we head out for Agni.

Khristina tapped her staff to signal the group's dismissal and proceeded to head for the doors of the church, with Loralei close behind her.

Nephele tucked her head down and backed away as she prepared for Khristina to instruct everyone to stop acting like barbarians and accept the fact that they were chosen by Lucius for a reason. This went on for several moments before Khristina transitioned into the first objective of the quest. "Now... If that is all the questions you have, then I suggest we all rest here in Edivid, tomorrow we head out for Agni" Was the last thing Khristina said before dismissing the group with one last tap of her staff. Both Loralei and Khristina start to leave and Nephele gulps before following close behind.

Nephele kept her head down as she looked at the ground and followed Khristina and walked beside Loralei. She leaned over to Loralei and whispers "Am I the only one that feels that Lady Khristina was nearing her limit of... tolerance?"

"Ow! That's not right, Lo-Lo, those explosions hurt a lot, you know?" Flan looked at Lotte, wondering if her friend was oblivious of it this whole time, or if she was just being purposefully ignorant.

Either way soon enough the Oracle began to talk, but almost at the same time people began to fight and pillage the Church, even Malkai was taking part at it! Well now, fighting inside Churches and pillaging them was usually considered a bad thing. Everyone here wasn't supposed to be bad people, right? So, why were they doing bad thing? Flan decided to ignore it, but then Malkai came offering them part of the loot, which Flan refused. "Bad Malky! You shouldn't do bad people things if you are not a bad people. Are you that dumb?"

Before the elf maiden noticed, the Oracle called everyone for the bad things they were doing and resumed her speech. It looked like they had to fight against some ancient gods or something like this. Not that they had much choice, but like everyone else, Flan had her questions and made sure to raise her hand when she thought she could talk. "Erm... Also, how do we know what we are going to hunt? I've never seem an old god before, if we don't know how they look like, how can we fight they?" Flan hoped this was a good question, at least it looked to be in her mind.

Leaving the church after all questions had been answered, it seemed Ryuuga would have to find a place to stay the night. He briefly considered staying at the inn, but at the thought of running into the others he decided against this, he would spend his last night in freedom. He would have to use a trait he seemed to be one of the few possess, social aptitude. Asking around a couple of shops and the stables, eventually finding a suitable place. He quickly struck a deal with the shop's owners, agreeing to clean their shop in exchange for a a place to sleep.

The shop turned out to be surprisingly large in contrast to the humble marketstall, but a deal's a deal. Spending most of his night cleaning, the shop's owners even provided dinner for him. Tired from working, as well as just being naturally tired from how late it was by the time he was finished, Ryuuga dropped onto the bed. He could get used to this. Granted, the work was tough and plenty, but he had a roof to sleep under and even dinner for his efforts.

Viranti made his way out of the church in a bit of a hurry, eager to breathe in the relatively clear air. It wasn't as though he was completely clear as regards their mission, their first stop at Agni or these hero stones guarded by so called "Mecha Gods". But as he saw it, such matters may not be so important for he himself to grasp currently and, right this minute, he couldn't see himself as neither capable of sticking around the church to listen nor of grasping all of this through more explanation. Some things would have to be seen to be believed. What seemed a more pressing matter was finding shelter for the night, or at least a defensible location to wait until morning.

There was little doubt in his mind that the other warriors that accompanied the Oracle would know what to do in a place like this, even the armored giant of a being with horns seemed to know what he was doing, probing around the church in search of something. Viranti's growling stomach focused his mind on what he needed to do first, him reasoning that if he could survive the Tear, he could get through this. His fairly acute sense of smell returning to him, he cautiously began to walk into the village, following the scent of food. He wasn't allowed a substantial meal for a very long time, so the more food he'd find, the more likely he'd be at maximum strength by tomorrow.

"Hmm. Easy 'nuff." Malkai said as he ate the last bit of his cheese. Sounded like your average storybook fantasy. Get the party together, find the MacGuffin, and stop the bad guys. There might be some complications along the way, but nothing they couldn't work out with words or axes. One of the party members wondered if the oracle was nearing her limit of fucks to give about everyone's attitudes which just got a chuckle from Malkai. "She need thicka skin if dis is gunna push 'er off da deep end." Everyone seemed to be leaving, with a few like Flan with some questions to ask. Nothing Malkai could really awnser, so he'll just wait for her and Lotte outside.

And waiting for him was a fairly large grey wolf with a sword in his mouth. "Oi Wolf, where ya been?" Malkai got onto one knee and patted his partner in crime. Based off the blood on the sword Wolf had been hunting for a bit. "Glad ta see ya found yer own dinner. Don't suppose ya saved some fer me?" That's when Wolf scurried off into the forests, stopping a good fifty feet away just to see if Malkai was following after him. Smiling and sighing the lumbering orc in steel chased after his partner. "Guess I'ma about ta find out."