The process of transformation was painful.
Nero had his mind drowned out by words he had never heard before. Words that drive him mad.
But for some reason, he felt something holding him back from truly slipping away.
An anchor of some sorts.
And that wasn't the only thing.
His flesh and blood were stripped away and reforged anew.
His bones were crushed and flushed out of his body. But in their place, were even stronger, better bones.
He was being changed from the inside out.
Eventually, it all stopped.
Nero opened his eyes.
He tried to open his mouth to breath.
His eyes widened,
'Crap! I'm drowning!'
The murky depths bubbled and churned with his awakening.
The feeling of water flooding his lungs was terrifying and nearly overwhelming.
In his panic, he began swinging his arms wildly, swimming to the surface of the lake with whatever energy was left in his body.
The sound of wet flesh hitting the ground echoed across the desolate lakeside.
Retching and coughing, Nero gasped as he emptied his lungs of the lake water.
'I almost died.'
He let out a groan and dropped to his back.
Chest heaving with every labored breath, he glanced at the sky.
It was dark.
Night had come.
A derisive chuckle slipped form Nero's lips.
He was still for a moment.
Then he brought his hand up to his eyes.
Flexing his fingers, he knew for certain that something had happened beneath that lake.
'That thing broke my arm. But I feel no pain whatsoever.'
He had been miraculously healed.
He reached down and touched his side too,
'And my ribs too.'
Running his fingers through his wet her, he let out a sigh.
He tried to recall everything he had seen and heard.
'There was an eye. No. What was that thing? It called itself...'
Nero's eyes widened. He shot into a sitting position.
"The Divine Will?"
A contemplative look appeared on his face,
"No. That's impossible. The Divine Will? The so-called god of this reality? There's no way..."
"Right?"
All the holy scriptures and texts which included the one handed down to him by his mother referred to the omniscient creator of the earth and the god of all existence, as the Divine Will. Apparently, its true name has been lost over the last thousand millennia.
"But what does that mean? If that vision was real, what does that have to do with me?"
His brows furrowed as the scenes and words he had heard manifested even clearer in his mind.
Gaze absentminded, he slowly recited the words that strange entity has spoken to him;
***
"You have been recognized by the Divine Will as the one true Heretic."
"Because of that, you are the perfect 'Witness'."
"Your mind, body and soul shall be changed."
"You will be given a name and eyes that seemed the very essence of all things, so that you may bear witness to the beginning of the end of times."
"Your name is— Angel of Judgement, Armageddon."
***
'Witness? A witness to what?'
He frowned, 'A witness to the end of times... What does that mean? I don't understand anything.'
Seeing as he was getting nowhere, Nero slowly stood up.
Then he frowned.
He looked down.
"W-when did I get naked?"
***
The town was in ruins.
Remnants of corpses lay strewn on the streets, on buildings, in homes...
Everywhere.
As he walked through the silent town, a feeling of fear gripped at Nero's heart.
'What if that thing is still lurking nearby?'
Remembering the horrid creature, the fear mixed in with deep-seated rage and hatred.
On his way back to the town, he had stumbled back to the path where he had left Declan.
Nothing of his friend's corpse been left behind beside a dried up puddle of blood. The creature had devoured him entirely.
As for the guards that had tried to run away, he doubted most of them had gotten far. Some corpses were even scattered around the entrance to the mines.
He had taken the armor off of one of the guard corpses. Thankfully, he had been able to retrieve the clothes and rations he had bundled up, as well as his sword and book.
He took one last look at the church and the dead surrounding it. Glancing down at Peter's corpse, he could only offer a silent prayer before turning away.
He choose a bench located in an area of the town where there weren't a lot of corpses laying around.
The slight stench of decomposition lingered in the air, but it was not strong enough to summon the hordes of Beelzebub yet. However, he could sense they were fast on their way.
He had to leave as soon as possible.
"Between Gor and Bridgehorn, there are three towns and two cities. To get to the closest town will take at least three days on carriage and seven days of walking."
Nero pursed his lips.
The other towns had been in worse states than Gor. Those towns didn't have churches. They also weren't protected by enchantments.
Because this part of the Thorne Empire was rather safe, they could exist without the need of protection like the various walled cities. Although there were casualties and disasters from time to time, it was relatively not very terrible.
It was unfortunate, but the reality of it was that creating these enchantments not only require a lot of resources, as well as the presence of those well versed in sorcery, it also required a lot of expensive materials to maintain functionality.
The town of Gor could afford it due to their mine. Others were not so lucky.
However, in recent years, there has been little to no large scale attacks by the abominations. It would make sense that the towns that were even less protected than Gor would fall even quicker.
"In other words, I need to make it to the closest City. It will take me at least a month."
The Cities of the Empire were rather special as they contained the vast majority of humanities numbers. Those that lived in the towns were the unfortunate souls. Due to their large population sizes, each and every city of the Empire possessed walls that were heavily fortified by not just sorcery, but also the Empire's vast, indomitable army.