When he grew up, all Sacril heard of the inquisitors were stories of them coming to residences to investigate strange phenomena, followed by bloodshed and chaos.
At school, they were looked upon in a good light, as descendants of the order that had once saved humanity by building the cities of Babel.
The conflicted nature of these stories made Sacril quite apprehensive of his visit to the third city's cathedral.
Standing outside the building now, this feeling was heightened further.
It was an enormous circular building, made of white marble similar to the walls of each city, which were apparently built by one of the original inquisitors using his own abilities.
In the middle was a large tower that stretched far above, which was present in all five cities and was supposedly used as a means to survey the entire city at once, although Sacril doubted this, as he knew firsthand how much debauchery took place within the walls of this third city.
Without further delay, he lowered his gaze from the massive tower and came to the entrance of the building, which was one of four entrances that were all a simple set of four glass doors.
Certainly not as grand as one might imagine for a building like this.
He shrugged and pulled on the handle of one of the doors; it opened with a click, and as he stepped inside, he immediately noticed the difference in the quality of air inside the building.
There was not much in the way of buildings you could just walk into in this city, and the ones you could were often no fun at all. The air outside was quite smoggy, and overall, the atmosphere out there was quite unpleasant.
now as he breathed in clean air for the first time in the last two years, he coughed once and suddenly felt out of place.
Like a stain of dirt on a clean canvas.
He shook himself off and continued forward, ignoring any more thoughts like that one.
There was a reception desk situated directly in front of him, and he noticed several people sitting there as he came in.
As he got closer to one of them, they glanced up and took note of him.
It was a brown-haired woman with round glasses wearing a simple black and white uniform.
"Hello, welcome to the third cathedral of the Inquisition. How may I help you?"
Her voice was measured, almost robotic sounding, like she had said this countless times.
Sacril took another step and stopped.
"Hi, I am a newly awakened. I am hoping to prepare here for the first shift."
Shifting was a slang term for when awakened go to the nine-layered world.
The receptionist raised an eyebrow before seemingly remembering the slang and then nodded.
"Ah, of course. Do you have your citizen card with you?"
Sacril paused, an uncomfortable look appearing on his face.
"Um, no."
She looked up in confusion. "Is that so..? Well, you will need it, so I guess you will have to go and get that then."
Sacril shook his head.
"No, you don't understand, I don't have a citizen card, I'm an orphan who was sent here without identification two years ago."
She stared at him for a few seconds before shaking her head and looking at her computer while furiously typing.
After about a minute without her saying a word, he assumed it might be a subtle hint for him to leave, but as he was about to do so, she spoke once again.
"This will be difficult, but we cannot allow an awakened to die; we don't have enough as it is."
He stared back at her, waiting for her to continue as she squeezed her forehead for a moment.
"An examiner will have you; it will help if you are exceptional, but as long as you can test in the realms of an awakened, we can likely get you a spot."
Sacril nodded, "Thank you."
The girl simply waved to him and gestured to a waiting lounge behind him.
.
.
.
The lounge was quite comfortable, although it had already been around an hour, and he was growing tired of waiting.
But due to his circumstances, he supposed he didn't really have a choice, and just waited.
Eventually, the woman from behind the desk came to the waiting area and cleared her throat.
He, who had been deep in thought about what this place would be like if he made it to the program, suddenly snapped to attention.
"I will escort you to the room, if you don't mind."
Sacril nodded and stood up before following her past the reception desk and down a long hallway.
They stopped and turned beside a red metallic door. The woman knocked four times and waited before turning to Sacril.
"This is as far as I'm going, good luck."
Sacril nodded, "Thanks again."
She walked back down the hallway, leaving him in front of the door.
After a few more moments, it creaked open, seemingly automatically.
It was dark on the inside, and he walked inside tentatively.
The lights flicked on, and he suddenly jumped away a few meters.
The space was a large gymnasium; however, directly beside him stood a tall man.
He had not noticed him when he first came in, but he was wearing a long trench coat and had a baggy set of pants.
His hair was graying, with strands of light brown hair showing through in patches.
He eyed Sacril strangely before standing up and scratching his head sheepishly.
"Quick reactions there, kid, sorry for testing you like that."
Sacril widened his eyes. "Test? That was the test?"
The man nodded, "Yeah, dormant humans can't notice me at all, if I don't want them to, that is. Most awakened can notice me if the light is on, you actually noticed me a second before they turned on, though.
Sacril raised an eyebrow. "I did?"
The man laughed sheepishly, "Haha, looked like it to me, but what do I know?"
Sacril stared for a moment before the man continued.
"Ah, I see, I guess I should have started with this, my bad."
He took in a breath and opened his eyes fully.
"You're in, kid. Welcome to the third Cathedral."