"Lady Chrissa, it is good to see you again." She looked to the source of the voice. "And you, High Priestess Laurena. It has been too long since I have visited this grand cathedral." "What is it that brings you to us this day?" "I have received news that I shall be heading to Light's Hope Chapel very soon. From Leonid Barthalomew himself!"
"I wish you luck in your ventures, Lady Chrissa. The Scourge grows stronger by the day." "I thank you, High Priestess. I shall do my best to purge them from the land." The High Priestess nodded to Chrissa and walked past her. Her gaze then turned to watch her as she approached a small group of terrified-looking acolytes that had just entered the cathedral. They were all looking around, shuffling slowly forward with their robes dragging on the floor, obviously too long for their rather young owners. They couldn't have been older than eleven or twelve. Chrissa turned back to face the altar. Approaching the steps, she then kneeled before them, her hands locking themselves in prayer. She prayed that the long journey to Light's Hope Chapel in the Plaguelands would be uneventful, and that if it wasn't, that her companions and she would get there safely. She could feel the Light filling her heart, and it was a wonderful, uplifting sensation. Noticing that the acolytes were watching her, she then lifted her tome from its heavy chain and let it fall open in her hands. Flipping through its pages and skimming quickly, she outstretched a gauntleted hand, muttered a single word, and immediately felt an electric tingling sensation shoot through her. Shutting the tome, and placing it back on its chain, she heard the 'ohh's and 'ahh's of the young acolytes and smiled. These were the next ones who would hold the Light, and feel it in their very souls. She then called them forward, one by one, and blessed them. "You are the future priests and priestesses, and knights of our beautiful city. Light guide you always, brothers and sisters." She then turned on her heel, and left.
Frowning, she placed her hand on her forehead and rubbed the cold flesh carefully. It was surely a trick of the Scarlet Crusade, and their damned "Light" that they seemed to foam at the mouth like rabid animals for.
She snarled. For implanting such lies into her head, they would pay dearly.
Hacking, slashing, chopping, breaking through Scarlet marksmen, priests, defenders. There was no end to them. They ran to her blade as if it would trigger some sort of epiphany to make her change her ways, as if their death would make a difference.
How foolhardy they were.
"They beg for death by your blade, champion. Grant it to them."
"Of course, my Lord. There is no other way."
There was no thinking, no hesitation, no lamenting over the tasks given to her.
They easily surrounded her, maybe seven or eight of them, while she was lost in her thoughts. Weapons brandished and teeth gritted, they attempted to charge her.
She knelt down, placing a single gauntleted hand upon the earth.
"Decay like the lesser beings you are, Scarlet fools."
The ground erupted with unholy energy, seemingly boiling with it as it spread outwards from her hand, and catching the Crusaders in it. They screamed and writhed in agony, the power of the decay too great for their bodies to withstand. Armor melted off of flesh, and flesh melted off of bone until nothing but eroding skeletons remained. She raised herself, untouched by the energy, and only spared a glance at the remains.
"No matter if you are skeleton or corpses. You shall still be used."
She crushed one of the skulls underfoot.
"Even if I break…"
A spine.
"…every bone…"
A femur.
"…of your body…"
A tibia.
A small group of ghouls emerge from the broken walls, growling as they approach the remains of the Crusaders.
"Take the bones to The Harvester. I'm sure he will find a use for them."
She waved a hand dismissively and they snarl but begin gathering up the bones before lumbering away to deliver them to The Harvester. If he could not find any real use for them, they could always assist in the demoralization of the Scarlet Crusade.
It was something that was always needed to be done.
They and their foolhardy Light needed to be put in their place.