|3rd POV|
Her name is Rita, and she was a worker in one of the factories in Tertium. Like many others, her life is monotone and gruesome. She needs to work 16 hours a day with only a small amount of compensation.
However, all that changed when one day the heretics started to attack the sector where she stayed. They all ransack all the valuables and repurpose the entire sector to do heretical things.
For months, Rita sees the heretics do unspeakable things to her fellow humans. Every day, she prays to the God Emperor to save her. Sadly… her prayer never once answered.
Slowly, her mind starts to think of a heretical thought. She no longer thinks of the God Emperor as a God.
She will never accept the so-called gods that the disease-ridden humans worship, but she will also no longer believe in the God Emperor.
She knows those Gods the cultists preach are nothing but demons who do nothing but torture humans, and she will never worship that kind of being.
She saw what the so-called God they worship did to their bodies. The screaming of pain can still be heard inside her mind. She remembers the humans who willingly join them turn into an abomination filled with pus and maggots. They are no longer humans but rather husks without souls.
She is among the people who keep their stubbornness and refuse to worship their so-called God. They torture her, but she refuses, not because of the faith in God Emperor, but because of spite.
She no longer believes in God, and she will die Godless, for there is no God ever to help her in her life, so there will be no God worthy of her worship.
Sadly, she and the others get taken outside to be sacrificed to their Gods because of this stubbornness.
She hears them talking about using their bodies to warn others who look from the sky about what kind of people they are facing.
So here they are, walking through the barren world. The heretics are whipping them just because they can. We continue to walk to the outermost location of the complex. Second by second, they get near the tower, and she knows her life will be over.
However, as they pass the massive wall, something happens. A red light pierces through one of the heretics and kills her instantly.
Rita watches the corpse in shock and sees the other heretics looking around for the attacker. Another red flash appears and kills another heretic.
The laser keeps killing the heretics, and when there are only three left, they grab her and the others. They point their guns at them. They are using their bodies as shields. One of them looks around and shouts.
"Who are you?! Show yourself, you Corpse Worshipper!"
However, before they can do anything, another red flash kills them one by one. The first one is the one holding her, and before the others can kill her fellow humans, two more red flashes kill the rest.
The last one tries to use the smallest of them as a shield, but he gets killed before he can use her as a shield.
All of them can only stay there. They don't know what to do now. Their homes are gone, and they don't have anywhere to go. That's why they can only wait and hope this person is not another maniac.
They do not wait long before they see a man wearing dark clothes walk toward them. They huddle together as he gets closer, but when they see the man give them a small smile, they relax just a small bit.
This man is Kael.
He stops not too far away from them, with his weapon behind his back. He looks at them and winces a little at the signs of abuse and torture on their bodies. He sighs and says.
"Do you guys want to come with me? You can stay in my base. We can hide there. It is not too far away."
He gives them a small smile and sees them nodding their heads after a few seconds of hesitation.
He walks to his base, and they follow him to the other side of the area. His base is in the middle of two metal walls, and through an almost destroyed fence covering the entrance. He enters the room, and the others follow him.
They look around the bare bones room. It is big, able to let them sleep here without a problem, and the light is still on.
Kael takes the makeshift metal bowl he created from the leftover metal from barricading the window. He fills the bowl using his [Spray Water] ability. He does not see the shocked expression the others give him.
At first, they are afraid that Kael is another cultist. However, they decide to trust him for now when they see him showing clear water inside the bowl and his kind smile.
"Here you go. Please drink the water. You guys are thirsty, right?"
They look at each other for a few seconds before Rita decides to be the sacrifice for the other. She takes the bowl and takes a deep breath. She raises the bowl and drinks from it. Her eyes widen as her throat feels refreshed from the cool water flowing through her throat.
She coughs a little, and Kael walks toward her, patting her back. The others prepare to leave her coughing, but stop when they do not see any mutation.
"Slow down. The water will not go anywhere."
She nods her head and mutters her first words in a while.
"Thank you."
Kael nods his head with a smile and lets her drink the water. When she is done, he takes the water and fills it once again. Rita looks at the others and nods her head. That breaks the dam. The others start to eagerly drink from the bowl while Kael tries to ensure the bowl stays full.
Lucky for him, his vitality is massive because of the [Elixir of Life], or he cannot continue producing the water.
While he is busy, Rita watches him from the side. In her eyes, Kael is someone she is willing to trust for now. However, there is something that she wants to make sure to know first.
"Are you one of the guards, my lord? Are you one of the Emperor's agents?"
Kael looks at her for a second and thinks about whether he should have told her the truth or not. While he is thinking, Canto tells him to tell the truth. At least he will know if he needs to relocate somewhere if they are zealots.
He decides to trust Canto and says.
"No. I am just a man who wants to make this world a better place. The heretics hurt this world, and the imperium never cares for us. No. I am here not because of the Emperor, but because I am a human who wants to create a better place for the future generation."
Kael looks at Rita right in the eyes and says.
"You can leave now if you think of me as a Heretic. I will not stop you."
Kael does not know it, but he earns Rita's and her group's trust because of those words. He doesn't know that he is gathering the people who no longer trust in the emperor, but are able to see the lie of the so-called Gods the cultists worship.
When he summons all kinds of fruits and vegetables for them to eat, their trust turns into something else, but that is a story for another day.
For now, this is the beginning of a new Faction that appears in Tertium Hive. A faction that fights not because their God told them to, but rather they want to create a better place for themselves and their descendants.
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