I AM AN ATHEIST

Because I am an Atheist

" Roar"

" Charge "

" Neigh"

" Neigh "

" Neigh "

..Rumble, Rumble...

The ground quacked because of charging troops and horses.

At the same time, a man rushed inside the tent of general Faiza.

" What happened? "

Faiza questioned as soon as she heard the sounds and saw the panicked soldier who charged into her tent without permission.

" General, general, it's bad, it's bad "

The man replied as he was still panicking.

Faiza rushed outside, she did not have enough time to consolidate the soldier to know the situation as she thought it's better to see oneself than hearing from someone else.

As soon as she walked out, she saw all her soldiers wearing the armour, including the cavalry, who sat on horses, seemed to be ready to charge any given time.

However, when Faiza looked towards the sound she shuddered by seeing a pack soldiers marching towards them, what is most astonishing thing is that despite being arch-enemies, the kingdom of Replica and the kingdom of Terra were working together which had never been happened.

It was widely known how the goddess of fire and the goddess of rebirth and reincarnation were like fire and water.

Although it was worth to know how two arch-enemies came together and planned the surprise attack on them, she knew that it was not her priority, her priority was either to fight to the death or successfully defend the camp.

" Neigh "

" Stop"

Under her watchful eyes, the marching troops paused with a single word from a young man at a distance 500m away from them.

Next to a priest, the young man was sitting on a horse at forefront of the troops.

Faiza knew that this young man was the key, she had her guesses about his identity.

"Listen, troops of kingdom Gala, In the name of the goddess, Prince Xavier would like you to surrender without shedding unnecessary blood"

A message was sent aloud from the enemy camp to Faiza.

Faiza was in a dilemma as she knew they were clearly outnumbered and if they fought defeat was inevitable.

" General Faiza, we can't do that, we would rather die then surrendering"

Pikong, a small commander under her who is in charge of 300 people, declared his stance.

" Yes general, we would rather die but we won't surrender"

Another commander said.

"Yes, general"

Another one agreed.

"Fight to death"

Someone yelled.

"Fight to death"

"Fight to death"

Seeing the fighting spirit of her comrades, she was inspired and felt like charging into the enemy right away but she was not a fool to do so.

" We can win, we still got a chance "

She reassured her soldiers as her eyes seemed to set on her prey, the key to the victory, the leading young man who brought the enemies together.

" Commander, be ready to battle anytime, I got a plan"

She said as she charged out of the allied camp and headed towards the enemies camp alone.

" Stop"

A soldier halted her as soon as she reached the enemy's base.

" I am general Faiza, the current highest authority for the troops of kingdom Gala, I am here to surrender, I would like to have a meet with the prince"

Faiza requested with a bow.

" Let her"

Xavier was not far away when he heard her, so he directly accepted her request.

" But prince"

The priest objected, but he was convinced when he saw the confidence in the eyes of the messenger of the goddess.

" General Faiza, Can you remove your helmet? , I would like to see your face"

Faiza didn't object as she untied the helmet and grabbed it out revealing her face.

She was definitely a beauty worth cities, she had a slim waist, blue eyes, white skin and long yellow hair.

Her face was charming enough to move the heartless mountains out of their place.

The prince jumped out from his horse and slowly walked towards her

" You are indeed a beauty yet also dangerous "

The tone of the prince during the first half of the sentence was friendly then in the second half, it turned to hostile as he charged at her with the sword.

"Clang"

Sound of metallic collision rang out as two swords collided.

" Prince, what's the meaning of this?"

Enraged Faiza shouted.

"You think yourself as clever enough to deceive me"

" I knew you were planning a surprise attack on me and wanted to as close as possible to execute"

" But sorry, your childish tricks won't work on me"

" clang"

" clang"

The prince said as they exchanged several sword strikes.

Faiza seemed to be inexperienced just like the prince, but the prince seemed to have the upper hand.

" Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa"

While Faiza exchanged the strikes with the prince she heard Pickong's painful cry.

Faiza got distracted and looked over, seeing her comrades who were five hundred meters away from her, being pierced arrows, she turned to ask

" Archers, When did you? "

" Clang"

" Auch "

" Faiza, do you think you have time to worry about them? Your carelessness may have resulted in a scratch on your beautiful face just now"

Xavier said as he made the slight cut on the arm of Faiza.

" Your people were too much concerned about you"

" It is the reason that they did not notice my archers moving and surrounding them from the backside of my army"

Never less Xavier cleared her doubt.

"prince.."

Faiza yelled while looking at the prince who was retreating.

" Sorry general, you are weak, I don't have time to play with you"

Prince Xavier declared as he glared at a muscular man beside him and said " Gomu take care of her but don't kill her yet, you may go easy on her until I come back"

Gomu is the personal bodyguard of the prince, he served the prince from the time of his birth.

"Yes prince"

Gomu acknowledged the order as he drew his sword to engage in a sword fight with the general.

" Prince, where are you running off to"

" Xavier, how dare you to ignore this general?".

Faiza yelled while fighting Gomu, but Xavier ignored her.

Prince looked at his soldiers especially the one from the kingdom of Terra.

" My dears brothers, Goddess Alona just sent me a message that the people who would perish today while taking a life of an enemy along would have their entire family granted a palace each in the heaven "

" Let's charge in and grab the victory for the goddess"

" For the goddess"

Prince charged at the enemies while yelling out.

" For the goddess"

The priest followed.

"For the goddess"

" For the goddess"

" For the goddess"

Putting the life on the line, the troops charged with vigour to grab the victory as they performed best of their abilities

The victory was no surprise, but it took some time to complete the raid.

After the battle, Xavier called the priest.

" How were the losses? "

Xavier enquired.

" Even though we outnumbered the enemies we took quite a blow, our side lost a total of 2000 soldiers among them 1,800 were from the kingdom of Terra and 200 were from the kingdom of Replica "

The priest replied in a deep voice, the priest had the doubts but he could not say it out because he saw himself how the warriors of kingdom Terra charged at the enemy without defending themselves.

Even when they were in injured and lost a limb, they did not defend instead gave a death blow to the enemies while taking the fatal attack.

for the sake of goddess, they fought like barbarians.

" I see, summon the survivors of the kingdom of Terra, in the name goddess we should bid a proper farewell to the deceased"

Xavier said with a sad face.

We won but the prince is not happy but he is sad because of the loss we suffered, no doubt he is the real messenger these thoughts were running throw the priest's mind.

" As you wish my grace"

The priest left then came back with the people of the kingdom of Terra.

" My brothers, today some of our brothers perished here to fulfil the wish of the great goddess Alona, we must pay our homage to these brave warriors"

Xavier spoke.

" Everyone follow me and drop your armour and weapons, close your eyes then repeat after me"

Prince Xavier unbuckled his armour and threw the sword.

Putting his head up, While looking at the bright sun in the sky he closed his eyes.

The soldiers and the priest were confused but soon followed the prince, and they similarly unarmed themselves, facing their head up towards the sun, closed the eyes.

" Oh! Mighty goddess of Alona, with your grace we born "

Prince said.

"Oh! Mighty goddess of Alona, with your grace we born"

The soldiers repeated.

" Today we prevailed, thanks to you "

Prince said.

" Today we prevailed, thanks to you "

The soldiers followed.

" But nothing comes without a price, our brave brothers returned to you"

Prince continued.

" But nothing comes without a price, our brave brothers returned to you"

The people followed.

The believers fell deep in their prayer losing the track of time and surroundings.

"Ahm..uhm"

Xavier cleared his throat.

As if it was preplanned, a few soldiers among them opened their eyes when they heard a throat-clearing noise.

"They were brave like tigers, they were glorious like lions, they fought like a true warrior"

Xavier continued his prayer.

"They were brave like tigers, they were glorious like lions, they fought like a true warrior"

The people followed.

" Oh great goddess Alona, if you like my prayer, if you love my prayer please put your hand on my mouth and accept them with your hands"

Xavier continued.

" Oh great goddess Alona, if you like my prayer, if you love my prayer please put your hand on my mouth and accept them with your hands "

The closed eye ones repeated while the one opened their eyes when heard the sentence, stood behind the one with closed eyes and grabbed their mouth with one hand, with the other twisted the neck.

As the prayers continued, every time the line with keeping the hands-on mouth came up, some felt a real hand on their mouth then they could not feel any further.

The prayer continued until the priest felt a hand on his mouth.

"Oh my, the goddess is here, she is touching my lips, the messenger was real, praise the goddess..."

His thoughts were incomplete before his body fell lifelessly on the ground.

"Prince"

When Xavier heard his name being called out, he stopped the prayer and looked around.

More than a thousand dead bodies were scattered on the ground with a twisted neck, some had a peculiar smile on their face showing the satisfaction.

" well done, let's go"

Prince said as he grabbed his horse and returned to the place where general Faiza was fighting Gomu.

Gomu and few soldiers were sitting leisurely on the ground, but when they saw the prince returning, they stood.

"How is she?".

Xavier asked.

" She is exhausted and lying there "

Gomu said as he pointed at a silhouette who was struggling on the ground with pain.

" Gomu, do you know who can she be?"

Xavier asked.

" prince I can't say exactly who she is, but I got it from her"

Gomu said as he showed a locket.

Xavier did not understand and stared at Gomu for an explanation.

" This is a royal locket of the king of the Gala, he gifts it to only his fiancee"

Xavier finally understood.

"Marrying someone of his grand daughter's age, that damn old fogey in '70s surely knows how to enjoy his life"

" I wonder how he will react when he came to know that his fiancee became my maid "

Xavier said as he showed an evil smile.

Hearing the word maid a shudder ran throw Faiza who was in pain on the ground.

" Gomu carry her, she is our prisoner"

Xavier ordered.

But Gomu did not move.

" what happened? "

Xavier was worried as he knew Gomu never defied his orders.

" Prince I can't, goddess prohibits us to take a female as a prisoner of war, but prince if you want me to kill her, it would be no problem"

Gomu explained his reason for the refusal.

" I see but I don't want to kill her, Is there another way?"

Prince Xavier asked to Gomu.

" We can simply leave her here"

Gomu suggested.

"Either way She would die eventually if we leave her here, the wolves might come here anytime due to smell of blood in the air "

Gomu elaborated.

Prince Xavier thought for a while, before approaching Faiza.

Seeing a man was closing to her, she shouted: "what are you gonna do? stay away from me, stay away ".

Xavier ignored her yelling, tied her feet and hands while resisting her beatings, lifted her upon his shoulder.

" Gomu, I decide to take her as my war prisoner, do you have any objections?"

Prince shouted.

" No, your grace"

Gomu said as he bowed.

" And you?"

Prince looked at the other soldiers.

"No"

The soldiers replied in a union.

" Let's depart to the capital with the news of our victory"

Prince shouted.

" yes "

" yes"

The soldiers were in high spirits not only due to the overwhelming victory they had but also by experiencing the capability of their future leader, the future king.

While they began to depart, Xavier placed Faiza in front of him on his horse, she was literally in his arms and very close to him as such their bodies were actually touching each other.

" You? Why did you that? you could have left me there"

Faiza asked.

" You dummy, if I have left you there, you might get eaten alive by wolves"

Prince replied as he kicked his horse to move with more speed.

" But your goddess does not allow this, don't you fear her, don't you fear the people's opinion?"

Faiza questioned.

"Hahaha.."

The prince laughed before replying:" Goddess my ass, I don't believe in her or any god or goddess because I am an atheist".