A wide grin appeared on its face. Since it didn't have any teeth, the disturbing smile was worse than it already was. "You can become part of something great too."
The creature was trying its best not to laugh; its body shook, hands holding onto its belly as if something would burst out from the inside. "Like the rest of them."
Sounds of laughter and chatter came out from the buildings surrounding the intersection.
"Our Savior is Great! Our Savior is great!" They chanted, kicking their feet high before stomping down in a rhythmic dance, shaking their wrist high and then low.
"You are!" Alea's eyes widen in shock. The people that was making a circle around her and the burning man were none other than the sick and the elderly, whom she had prioritized settling their dispute first.
'I guess I don't have to worry about their well-being anymore.' Alea thought to herself, fingers curling onto herself, twisting and turning in her palm as if she was coiling something. Her eyes scanned the people closing on her.
Saying that they were different was an understatement. Once sickly and old, they now carried themselves like a phoenix mid-rise—still streaked in soot and dust, yes, but with wings that no longer trembled, and eyes that had remembered fire, and of a time that had long passed. Not quite clean, not yet shining, but unmistakably alive and full of youth.
When before they needed a cane and sticks just to take a few laborsome steps, they were now dancing like kids in the rain. Except, instead of refreshing droplets of autumn rain, the fire was raining ashes down upon the village.
'I thought you told me there wasn't a way to become younger.' Alea spoke inside her head.
But the high-level spirit didn't reply to her sarcastic statement; instead, it spoke in a hushed, hurried voice, 'Focus!', telling her to stop messing with its concentration.
The laughter was now coming from every direction surrounding her, echoing louder as they splashed, like waves on a water surface when met in phase, their individual amplitudes combined together to create a higher crest each time. Encouraged by this, the circle laughed even louder. An endless loop of spirally escalation, hindered only by the upper limit of vocal cords, caused Alea's headache to worsen. But before she could find herself sprawling on the ground, and gripping her tears off, Corski had commanded the wind spirits to filter out the sound, reducing the intensity of the assault on her ears significantly.
"Silence in the presence of our Savior!" The burning man yelled out, throwing his head from left to right in anger. Immediately, the laughter quieted down to chuckles. Hands and fingers covered mouths, nails digging so tight to keep the mouths shut that blood started to drip down the edges of their lips.
"Princess Alea, I've been keeping a close eye on you ever since your group passed the ravine. At first, I thought you were representing House Gennan to support the Church in their mission to capture our Savior." The burning man said, each word ended on a higher note as the laughter struck in his thought tried to escape. "To this moment, I still have great suspicion toward you."
"But the past week, you've proven yourself to be a benevolent person, hosting a lavish feast for a bunch of peasants and miners. Waking up early to resolve problems within the village. You care about the sick and elderly's suffering, so you make sure to hear their problems first. Even going so far as to throw yourself into the flame in order to look for them."
As the burning man continued to paint a beautiful description of Alea's character, she couldn't help but snort, feeling extremely proud of herself. 'Maybe this guy isn't such a bad person.' Alea thought to herself. 'Maybe we should hear him out on what he has to say.'
'NO!' Corski yelled out, abruptly stopping Alea from wasting another second losing focus as she pondered over the insanely stupid idea.
"There is no use in flattering a beast!" Alea yelled out. "Get to the point."
The burning man stopped complimenting her.
"You're different from the other nobles." He locked eyes with Alea. For a just passing moment, reason came back to his crazed irises; there was an emotion on his face that she didn't understand. "You have sympathy for us weaker folks."
"I was once weak and pitiful. Born to a struggling merchant family, I could only watch helplessly as my father, my mother, and my sister slaved away for a corrupted lord to keep us from falling down the social hierarchy. When they were framed for committing a crime, the only thing I could do was run away." A sniffle interrupted him, followed by a sound of something sizzling. "I changed my name and spent the last of our savings to get into a bureaucrat school in the last attempt to find a way to clean my family's name."
"But then they assigned me to become the chief of god-know-where village. So far away and with so much nonsense work that I couldn't prepare my case fast enough while maintaining the status quo of contribution." More sounds of sizzling could be heard as the range of his voice fluctuated from high to low, and from low back to high. "Mom, Dad, Sis. I've failed you. I'm so sorry. If only I had met our Savior sooner, you wouldn't have died of sickness in a prison."
But the saddened expression was short-lived. Nowhere to be seen when he spread his arms wide and spoke with deep admiration toward someone. "Our Savior is great. Our Savior is kind."
"Unlike that dead goddess and her offspring, who only cared about themselves, making sure to stop any of us from learning about rune magic, condemning us to a life of destitution. Our Savior offers everyone a choice."
He spread his paws and showed them to Alea. There was nothing inside them. But she knew what he was implying.
"Flame or Blood." A choice. He was trying to recruit her. He looked at the inside of his left palm as he spoke. "Receive his blood and stand beside us as a Heaven Seeker. Together, we will bring eternal life and happiness to this world. No more sorrow, no more sickness, no more farewell to loved ones. Winter will cower before his name, and we won't need to partake in this unjust system anymore."
"Or stand in our path, and face the wrath of our flame." Lifting his right palm up to the level of his eyes, he squeezed hard once Alea was inside of it before opening it up again to blow onto it. "Only dust and ashes will remember your futile fight against the inevitable."
Alea burst out laughing. She rubbed away the tears that had formed at the corner of her eyes before staring back at the burning man fiercely. "You dare threaten me?"
"I will tell you something," Alea said. "I'm not afraid to burn myself. Why should I be? For only when I'm dust and ashes could I join with the wind and soar high above the blue sky."
Her voice became louder as she needed to enrage every mad person within the perimeter.
"Keep your blood, beast. Do not be mistaken. I treat others no differently because of who they are. Not because I'm an honorable person or anything. It's definitely not because I'm a good person. I do not care about status or wealth. Nor do I seek eternal life. No. I sought out something greater. Clarity.
And how could I achieve that if I am confined within the framework built to protect the interests of the few by limiting the spread of technologies and studies? How could I achieve that if I'm turned into a crazed maniac barely able to stop myself from laughing? I'd rather make use of my limited time on this earth to chase after knowledge than be confined eternally inside of my own body with a mind that barely functions."
The paused laughter once again filled the entire space as every crazed person started to let loose of the confinement on their mouths and burst out laughing. This time it was even louder than before and managed to cause Alea's ears to hurt despite being protected by the air bubble. But they were all pale in comparison to the burning man who had just been rejected by Alea.
As he howled in hysterics, he spoke. His voice was full of disdain. "GOOOOD, I WAS HOPING THAT YOU WOULD DECLINE! OUR SAVIOUR IS KIND BUT I AM NOT!"
"CHARGE! SHOW OUR ENEMY THE MIGHT OF OUR SAVIOUR!" He gave one last command before lunging forward, running on four legs.
Sounds of footsteps erupted, and the circle instantly became smaller. Upon hearing the sound of the stampede coming toward her, threatening to swallow her whole and drown her in a sea of steps, Alea's survival instinct kicked in. Her heart thumped against her ribcage, beating loudly as if not wanting to lose against the sound of the oncoming assault. Maybe she, too, was affected by all the laughing; a wide grin spread from one corner of her cheeks to the other, showing off her canine teeth.