Chapter 2836: The Faith Musician, Sandalphon!
Date: Unspecified
Time: Unspecified
Location: Myriad Realms, Card World, Southern Region, Blossom District, Three Mischief Encampment
"The Faith Musician, Sandalphon!"
Corey exclaimed as she and the Field Marshal surged above the blood storm, arriving just in time to see Konjur facing off against a massive humanoid creature. Its eyes were sealed shut, the lids crudely stitched together with their own lashes. Its pale, marble-white body writhed with hundreds of thousands of mouths.
More mouths kept forming every second, even as others collapsed in on themselves. Each one seemed to whisper or chant prayers in various languages from across the myriad realms. Once it finished, the mouth would snap shut and vanish, making room for another. The number of mouths continued to swell, and with them, so did the size of the humanoid figureâSandalphon.
The sight of the creature was eerie enough to keep anyone from sleeping for a decade. Still, Corey and the Field Marshal steeled themselves and plunged into the fray. Konjur appeared to be trying to establish a new divine dominion and drag Peyote into it. But no matter how hard he tried, the faith he summoned to support it refused to heed his call, slipping from his control and fading away almost as soon as it formed.
"Whatâs a Sandalphon?"
"Itâs an incredibly powerful cosmic race of deeply empathetic beings that create miracles for struggling souls through their prayers. They take peopleâs faithâthe hope that things will one day get betterâand turn that hope into reality. In short, theyâre the bane of the Dark Cults.
"They were revered across the myriad realms, treated like angelsâsometimes even as messiahs of the myriad realms. But, as always, that kind of power drew greed. Before long, they were hunted and enslaved, only for their captors to discover that Sandalphons die almost immediately in captivity.
"Even that didnât stop the hunts. People kept chasing themâeither for the high bounties placed on Sandalphons by the Dark Cults, or in the hope of uncovering a way to harness their miraculous power for themselves. Now... theyâre basically extinct."
Corey finished her explanation, her excitement barely contained at the turn of events. The Field Marshal, however, remained unconvinced. Nothing Corey had said quite explained how the Sandalphons were the bane of Dark Cults. Still, Corey was too caught up in her enthusiasm to notice her confusion.
"Wyatt was wrong. Peyote wonât just winâheâll kill Konjur. Against a Sandalphon, Konjurâs seemingly endless reserves of faith are useless, and heâs already weaker than Peyote in terms of raw prowess. Once his faith bottoms out, heâs as good as dead. That just leaves Peyote. We can handle him with my extra-concentrated vapor venom. Things are finally looking up for me today."
"Well, Wyatt did say we canât be certain until heâs observed how the fight develops between Peyote and Konjur. And... how exactly are Sandalphons the bane of Dark Cults?"
The Field Marshal found Coreyâs fixation on her young lord unsettling. She couldnât quite tell what drove it. Did Corey want to outdo him, prove him wrong, or prove herself to him? Even Corey seemed unable to decide.
At times, as his best friend, Corey would leap headfirst into contradicting him at every turn. The Field Marshal couldnât make sense of how such a friendship even functioned.
Yet, knowing her own young lordâs talent, she suspected Coreyâs contrarian streak was born from a mix of inferiority and inspirationâan urge to measure herself against him, even as she drew strength from his example.
It spoke volumes about Corey. Instead of sabotaging herself out of inferiority, she chose to confront her shortcomings and work through them. Many teenagers arrive at that realization far too late, but Corey hadnât. Perhaps it was the weight of her past-life memories guiding her, keeping her from repeating the same mistakes.
Whatever the reason, it took a great deal of strength and character to do what Corey was doing. Because of that, the Field Marshal didnât feel the need to correct her attitude toward her young lord.
"What do you mean, how exactly are Sandalphons the bane of Dark Cults? Werenât you listening to what I said earlier?"
Corey shot the Field Marshal an annoyed glance, but a single look in return straightened her out. She quickly composed herself and continued, "The faith used by Dark Cults is basically stolen devotionâbelief from people tricked into worshipping them, hoping their prayers will be heard and fulfilled. But when that same faith is used against a Sandalphon, it doesnât obey the cultists. Instead, it passively returns to its original purpose, fulfilling the prayers of the struggling souls it came fromâbefore the cult members can even expend it."
"No wonder they were called angelsâ even messiahs of the Myriad Realms. I suppose Iâm lucky to see one in person, even if itâs only an imitation."
The Field Marshal sighed, reminded that the myriad realms were as beautiful as they were dangerous. They gave rise to cruel and cunning races like the Dark Races, Viltronians, etc, yet also to selfless beings like the Sandalphons.
For a moment, her gaze lingered on the battlefield, but her thoughts were already elsewhere. She found herself looking forward to the day she would venture into the Myriad Realms alongside her young lord. It was going to be the new Chapter of her life.
"Corey, why isnât Konjur trying to retreat if Sandalphon is his natural enemy?"
The Field Marshal couldnât understand his decision to stand his ground, especially now that he was experiencing firsthand why Sandalphons were feared as the bane of Dark Cults.
"Thatâs because once youâve provoked a Sandalphon, you canât turn your back on itâunless you donât mind being torn apart by a sonic storm," Corey replied. "A Sandalphon is incredibly powerful, but it operates under a strict set of laws that govern how it uses its abilities. If someone manages to work around those rules, even someone like Konjur could kill it without his crutch, faith. But the moment you trigger even one of those laws... youâre as good as dead."
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