It was near sundown, and two men were sitting in a room. One of them was extremely frustrated.

"Dammit, why must we surrender the honor to these... Barbarians?!" Shouted the frustrated high-priest at the thin air. He knew that his frustration was going to accomplish nothing, but that didn't stop him from letting everyone, in the surrounding rooms, know that he was angry.

In his hand, the high-priest held a letter from the bishop. In it, was the declination of their request to borrow troops from the Church.

The high-priest was frustrated, but so was Will, however not for the same reasons. Will's superior was convinced that the battle could be won with their current numbers, but frustrated with the fact that the adventurers, who were helping out, greatly outnumbered the forces of the Church. That didn't bother the young priest, who was silently sitting in his chair. He was trying to comprehend why the Archbishop was letting them all die so willingly.

Will, himself, had encountered the creature, they were all supposed to fight. He had seen the hordes of undead, it commanded. The stronghold it was building.

The young priest's superior cared for nothing but honor, and unfortunately, not at all for facing facts, or listening to others' points of view. The high-priest was barking up the wrong tree. Should they all have at least a chance to survive, they would have to either run, which they couldn't unless they wanted to be branded traitors and heretics, or they could choose to strike now, disregarding the fact that the honor of victory would go to the adventurers.

"Honorable High-priest, we have to move now. We don't have time to waste, thinking about whether or not we will be remembered as the true victors. At least, I don't think we want to be remembered as the ones, who held back against a lich."

Will was trying his hardest to make his proposal sound like it would benefit his enraged superior, at least somewhat, so that they could mobilize quickly, and slay the monster.

"You're right. However, I cannot accept these conditions..."

'Does his pride know no limits? A true priest would not be blinded by unnecessary feelings, such as pride.' Will thought to himself, as his opinion of the high-priest fell drastically.

"Unfortunately, we must accept this." Will said, trying to mask his annoyance with sadness.

"Thank you for your input, Will, but I will have to think this over. For now, see what the other priests are thinking. How are they feeling about the situation?"

Finally, the young priest had won the argument. It had taken some time and effort, but in the end, Will came out victorious. Probably. There was still the process, the high-priest referred to as "thinking things over".

'Why am I stuck with this guy as my superior?' Will couldn't help but wonder.

A few minutes later, the former monk was standing in the dining hall, surrounded by his seniors. The fact that he could count himself among these elite mages of the Church, still brought a tear to his eye.

Alfred, who at the age of thirty-five had made great advancements in the field of magic research, resulting in his promotion from monk to priest. He had discovered the spell Arrow of Light , which was a long-range healing type spell, now used by many people. Will, himself, was trying to learn the spell, but had found it too hard to use.

Another example of a great priest was someone, who wasn't here at the moment. His mother. Calling her a priest would be wrong, since she had recently been promoted to high-pries. While Will was the youngest priest ever, his mother was the youngest high-priest to ever walk the earth. Her overwhelmingly powerful Light Magic was just one of many reasons, she had been elected high-priest.

Will's mother was also the young priest's inspiration to becoming a priest, himself. She was a shining example of how humans should act. They shouldn't discriminate against each other, or other races, for that matter. That was her philosophy. "Treat others with respect."

The young priest, himself had that philosophy engraved into his mind, during his days as a monk. He had been trained by his mother, who was making sure that he diligently studied towards becoming a priest. She, herself, was working towards becoming the new bishop, since the old one was growing older and older.

That fact clearly showed on the old man's declination of the high-priest's request of having troops sent to Elcrada. What logical reason was behind such an outrageous act of ignorance towards the threat, the enemy posed? If only they could all report directly to the Archbishop. He seemed to be the kind of man, who knew exactly what to do in any given situation.

'Oh crap, I spent too much time remembering things. I have to get to work... Who to start with?'

Will decided that the nearest priest would do, so he sat down at the nearest table, where a priest he knew to be called Ernst sat.

"Hello Ernst, lovely evening, isn't it?"

The young priest was trying his hardest to start a conversation, in the most natural way possible. However, despite his efforts, the chubby priest in front of him seemed to notice that Will wanted something.

Ernst raised an eyebrow, which suggested that he was at least listening. The chubby priest never came across as directly rude. Just really pragmatic about things. If one had something to say, it better not be a waste of his time. Therefore, Will would have to forget about idle chatter, and get to the point.

"I am sorry to take your time, but I need to ask you how you feel about us being outnumbered by adventurers, in our upcoming mission." The former monk said to his senior, who was still looking at him with a skeptical look in his eyes.

"I do not oppose the idea of working with these people. They get things done, and that is what we need, is it not?"

Satisfied, and a little bit happy with the answer, Will thanked Ernst for his time, and left for the next table.

In the end, the young priest, who still felt misplaced among his seniors, ended up with only two complaints about working with adventurers, out of a total of the ten people, whose opinions he had asked.

Very happy with the responses, he had received, Will headed towards his superior's room. As he approached the door, he could hear the distinct sounds of the frustrated high-priest wandering around his room.

'Are you serious?'

The young priest readied an extremely forced smile, which he could only hope would come off as somewhat believable. He pushed open the door and greeted the high-priest, who was practically sprinting around the room, while ranting about the mismanagement, from the Capital's side.

"I return with news of the others' opinions." Will said, hoping that they knew, he was bringing, would somewhat appease his enraged superior.

"Go on then!" The high-priest said, briefly stopping his frantic march.

"Only two people, Alfred and Montmoncy, dislike the idea of including adventurers in our mission." The former monk reported.

"I see... Well, I do not have a better alternative, myself, so I suppose we'll have to stick with the original plan. You and I will have to talk to the bishop, when we return. Your brilliant idea to further involve the Church was declined, and that reflects badly on all of us. Do you now agree?"

Will couldn't care less, but he nodded, hoping that that would be enough to get the man in front of him to start making good decisions, rather than basing all of his actions off of his sense of pride.

"Tell the others that we will be holding a meeting early in the morning. We'll have to get this plan underway, if we want to defeat the monster in the forest." The high-priest said, gesturing towards the door.

It had been a short conversation, but Will was more than happy with what he had gotten out of it. Slowly, but surely, they were working their way towards shutting down the stronghold, which was being built in the forest.

'If only mother had been the one to orchestrate this mission. She would have gone after that... Thing, as soon as she had heard it was hiding so close to a densely populated area. But no, I have to deal with this guy, instead.'

Will was internally badmouthing his superior, which he knew was bad, but he really couldn't help it. Only a select few, within the Church, deserved his respect, and this particular high-priest was not one of them.

Nevertheless, the young priest obeyed the words of his senior and walked down the stairs, leading to the dining hall. When he reached the bottom of the stairs, he saw something troublesome. One of his comrades, Kimberly, was having a heated argument with an adventurer, who she seemed to have spilled something on.

"It wasn't my fault! You bumped into me!"

"Do you not have eyes in your skull?! As expected of you priests. You probably even did it on purpose!"

The two were really going at it, and Will, who had a message to deliver, saw no other choice but to end the argument. He wasn't exactly sure how he was going to accomplish that, so he simply stepped in between the two.

"I'll take it with Miss Kimberly from here. Does that sound good to you?" Will asked the adventurer, who had what looked and smelled like ale dripping from his hair.

"Alright. But I won't be as forgiving, next time!"

Many of the surrounding adventurers also used this opportunity to show their discontent, with the priests being there.

'Its a good thing we're starting tomorrow, and leaving the day after.' The young priest thought.

He knew it was optimistic to expect victory against the undead in the forest, but what could he do, if not hope? There weren't exactly multiple choices. There was one option, and that was fight, so the Church's reputation wouldn't be tarnished as a result of their cowardice. No, fighting was all there was left.

When everyone had stopped causing a commotion, Will got to deliver his message. A tedious task on which he had spent way too much precious time. He sighed, and decided that going to sleep was the best option, he had. The body and mind had to be healthy, if he wanted any hope of defeating anything.

The remainder of the night, the young priest spent lying in his bed. He was going over the events, from the forest, in his head. While he tried not to show it to others, Will was scared out of his mind. The priests and the adventurers were about to face a threat, which usually required an entire army, to beat. The carelessness, with which this operation was handled, was too much for the worried priest. He closed his eyes, hoping to be able to sleep, but to no avail.

Realizing that his plan to sleep wouldn't come to fruition, Will decided to face facts, and pick up a book. He wasn't going to be sleeping for a while, so he might as well read for a bit. That always calmed his nerves. Immersing himself into an alternative reality, within a book.

In the end, the young priest passed out, after reading for many hours. Outside, the night had shrouded the world. Everything was silent. Not even the usual sounds of the nocturnal creatures of the night, could be heard. For some reason, the lack of sound woke the priest, who had just managed to sleep.

Will was lying in a pool of his own sweat, scared out of his mind. He couldn't hear anything, except for his sheets folding, whenever he moved. It was unsettling beyond description. It felt as if he had gone deaf, but he knew that couldn't be the case.

At this moment, the former monk felt unprecedented terror, as he realized the grave situation the entirety of the town was in. The young priest started breathing heavily, as his heart sank in his chest.

Suddenly panicked, Will shed his sheets, put on his robes and ran out into the hall, outside his room. And it was at that moment he heard the first sound of the night, sending chills down the spine of the one woke person in the inn.

The sound of Elcrada's massive alarm bell.