Chapter 43: Never again.

Chapter 43 - Never again."There are many bad people in the world. The mean girl and her mother were not the only ones." The Prophet continued, "But not everyone is equally bad. And God sees all, and lays His judgment when the time is ripe. And the storm the bad people created in the world's biggest city forced the Hand of God to punish the greediest ones. It ignited the flames of purification, and countless valuables, in God's eyes worthless worldly treasures, burned to ashes."

The old man took a lengthy pause as if trying to leave a deeper impression on the audience, but Lee prayed he could sooner go to his room to meditate.

Somehow the manner and the tone the Prophet spoke with gave him migraine. Enzo and Freeda were enthralled by the story, and impatiently waited for the next word to leave the old man's moth.

Fortunately for them, he soon continued, "And the greediest person of them all almost went mad from losses, for he couldn't comprehend the simple truth of everything in the world belonging to the God. The greediest person raged and raged, and instead of looking for the fault in the mirror, found guilt for own misfortune in one of his underlings."

"... He banished the underling from the biggest city along with the rest of their family, but the God is just! Members of the family weren't murderers or rapists thus the God forgave them their minor wrongdoings, and the Hand of God took care of the family. Hundreds of people were saved, and now are spreading the will of God in the world."

Then the Prophet smiled and asked Lee, "What do you think?"

"Seems like a happy ending." Lee forcefully smiled back, "Probably good enough for a bedtime story."

"What would you have done?" The Prophet asked.

"Oh ... I have no right to pass judgment on others!" Lee said, while waving him off defensively, "I'm just a child!"



"The age doesn't matter for we all are children of the God!" The Prophet said. Then he turned to Enzo and said, "You go, I'll catch up in a moment."

After the big man left, Prophet said, "The God has blessed you with incredible gifts, but there are barriers within you that don't allow you to bloom yet. Tell me, child, what troubles you?"

Lee glanced at Freeda, who encouragingly nodded, and realized she had most likely divulged his secret to the old man. It was a bit sad, but she was a part of religious group, so what could he expect?

'Right, if two know, even the pigs will know ...' Lee sighed to himself.

Obviously no matter what they talked about now, it would result in him getting brainwashed. Not that he cared – it was just annoying.

But then his eyes lit up. He actually had an ethical conundrum he couldn't solve for some time. Maybe an old geezer could throw a reasonable advice his way.

Lee thought for a moment, trying to figure out the best way to formulate the question, and in the end went with the long version.

He said, "Supposedly a group of people killed you parents. It's only normal for you to seek revenge, right? But after a longer period of time passes, you learn that some of the killers might not be as bad people as you thought. Or maybe they are vulnerable and weak women that are not guilty of the crime you thought they committed. You're not a God and can't see or know everything. How do you judge?"

Needless to say, Lee didn't have doubts about Victoria. The three young generals who followed her orders and will continue to do so after she became the empress were the same. Their heads had to roll no matter how heroic their bearing was.

But the two half-sisters, Cecil Ironfist and Helen Newman, seemed like harmless butterflies. Especially after their charming performance during the New Year's celebration, Lee found it hard to imagine him cutting their necks like he did with Lance, or poison them like he killed Dale.

The Prophet was caught off-guard, but quickly hid the surprised expression behind a wide smile, full of fatherly love.

He said, "Evil people will always be evil even though sometimes they are nice to others! Do you think the mean girl in my story was mean to everyone? No! She loved her mother, but following her unjust judgment, hundreds and hundreds of innocents suffered. There are times you have to get close to the people to read their true colors therefore you should go to the city, and learn whether the person in question is evil or not. Freeda will help you with that."

The last part came as a surprise to both grandson and grandmother, but before either of them could object, the old man put his gnarled palm on Lee's head, and said, "You will pass the judgment of God, for now from this very moment on you are the Hand of God!"

Lee felt a light sting, and then a strange dizziness clouded his consciousness. He forced himself to politely bow and say goodbyes, and only then dashed to his room. There he sat on the bed, trying to comprehend what just transpired, but the feeling of something being off never left.

Then he went with the only cure he could think of – following Tess's instructions, he focused on the blue mist revolving in his abdomen, but to his great shock it was replaced with dark green, almost brown, substance, as if polluted by something.

'You, old motherfucker!' Lee cursed to himself, not having a clue what the Prophet did.

He was slightly panicking, but managed to hold himself together. The only thing he could do now was to meditate, and hope the spark within him would initiate some kind of cleansing process.

A couple of years ago Tess taught him that there were four types of sparks corresponding to their respective elements – red fire sparks, blue water sparks, green wind sparks and yellow earth sparks.

While the red and green were particularly sought after by warriors since they gave either incredible destructive power or speed, the blue sparks turned people into amazing healers.



Yellow ones technically were able to give a person the ability to harden their skin so that even an axe couldn't cut it, but everyone generally preferred to have any other spark. Besides, a high quality yellow spark was even rarer than a blue one, although not as rare as a green spark.

No matter what, Lee never heard of superhuman ability that allowed to do what the Prophet did to him, no matter what it was. It only made sense it had to be the power of a spark, but which one could do it and what exactly was done to him?

With the current situation he couldn't really ask Freeda for help or anyone else he knew ... except ... Alan. Right! He had to get to his stepfather. He still had Tess's letter on him so hopefully Alan wouldn't sell him out right away.

Hundreds of thoughts in batches shot through Lee's mind, but fortunately the chaos in his consciousness didn't last for too long. He soon noticed a tiny blue particle that shone in the disgusting substance like a tiny gemstone in a dirt puddle, and soon found another one.

Then he focused on finding more, and with some effort, bit by bit, the familiar particles reappeared, allowing him to calm down.

Lee had no clue how exactly did it work, but Tess's technique allowed him to cleanse his consciousness, expelling the dark substance and replacing it with the blue particles. He opened his eyes only when he was certain no dirt was left within, and the space below his navel was once again filled with the revolving blue mist.

It was almost noon, and he was invigorated and full of strength, but turns out there was a side effect. As a reminder it has not been a dream, his whole body was covered in a thick layer of gunk. It stank and was sticky, like a tar, except it wasn't black, and without a second thought Lee rushed out to wash himself.

Unfortunately a bucket of water nor two were enough. In addition, Lee had no clue if the substance he was covered in was toxic, so he ran to the river and began to mercilessly scrub himself with sand till his skin bled.

The sun was setting when Lee finally considered himself to be clean enough to return home. He ached all over, but he decided it will serve as a reminder to never ever let an old men to touch him again.

He was not going to repeat the stressful night and then a day of washing while using sand instead of soap.