Eternal Master: Path to Godlike Status-Chapter 17: Master Anywhere

Before Alfonso could reply, one of his men whispered something to him, and his expression changed from wary to confident.

He straightened his silks, his face twisting into a smirk of bureaucratic superiority.

He had seen strong men before—warriors, mercenaries, even rogue mages. They all bled the same way when the Church decided they were no longer useful.

"The Church of the Twin Cross is neither a single building nor a single man. We are the marrow in the bones of this continent, with branches in every kingdom, eyes in every dark alley, and the ears of every king."

"We are like the ocean—vast and all-encompassing. To be on our ’good side’ is to live in peace. To be on our ’bad side’..." He didn’t finish; the meaning was all too obvious.

Rain stared at him. For a long moment, there was no anger—only a profound confusion.

It was the look a teacher gives the student who asks the same question every day.

"Bad side..." Rain repeated softly.

To him, Alfonso’s grand speech about empires was nothing more than the buzzing of a particularly loud fly. He stood up and took a single step toward the group of holy men.

"You talk of your reach," Rain spoke, his voice devoid of malice, sounding more like a scholar asking a question than a threat.

"I find myself wondering," he continued, his gaze drifting to the double-cross insignia on their chest.

"If your institution is as vast as you claim, then surely you know it would be wiser to be more careful—lest you poke a hornet’s nest."

"That’s it!" Alfonso raised his silver pendant.

The men behind him followed.

Suddenly, the dim light of the tavern fractured. From the glowing symbols on their robes and the pendants in their hands, searing white tendrils of energy lashed out.

They weren’t solid metal, but chains of solidified light, hissing as they cut through the air.

The chains wrapped around Rain’s wrists, his ankles, and his throat, pinning him to the spot.

He didn’t move. He looked down at the ethereal shackles with a look of curiosity. Then, the sound started.

Ssssssss.

Where the light touched his skin, it didn’t just burn—it reacted. His flesh began to steam and hiss, the "purification" energy attempting to dissolve the "impurity" of his supernatural biology.

To the priests, this was proof of his demonic nature. To him, it was a brand-new sensation.

"How interesting," Rain remarked bluntly as the skin on his neck blistered and peeled, only to regrow in raw pink layers that hissed again the instant they formed. "It’s like an itch that won’t stop."

"He’s resisting the Holy Seal!" one of the junior priests shouted, sweat pouring down his face. "Add more fate! Burn the corruption out of him!"

The light intensified, turning from white to a blinding, blue. The wooden floorboards beneath Rain’s feet began to char and turn to ash from the sheer proximity of the radiance.

Rain looked at Alfonso, who was channeling every ounce of his power into the chains. The Priest’s eyes were bloodshot, his face a mask of holy agony.

"I warned you about the hornet’s nest, yet you insisted on this path. You have eyes, but you refuse to see. Ears, yet you refuse to hear."

He let out a sigh, steam rolling off his shoulders in thick waves. "You’ve forgotten the most important rule of nature."

He took one more step forward.

The light chains groaned. The energy connecting the priests to him began to vibrate violently.

He wasn’t using magic to counter them; he was simply using his superhuman strength to pull against the literal concept of their faith.

"If you poke the nest," he paused, his muscles bulging beneath his coat, "you had better be fast enough to outrun what comes out."

With a casual motion, he flexed his arms outward.

CRACK.

The chains of light shattered like glass. The backlash sent the junior priests flying into the walls of the tavern, their silver pendants exploding into molten droplets.

Alfonso was thrown backward against the bar, his breath leaving him in a wheezing gasp as his "Holy Seal" was physically torn apart.

Rain stood in the center of the room, the scorched remnants of his shirt smoldering. The red marks on his skin were already fading.

"Is that the extent of your ’ocean’?" Rain looked down at his restored hands. "Because if it is... the water is surprisingly shallow."