Holy Blood 2

Chapter 2

Hui POV~~~~
Flashes of color met my eyes. It looked like the world around me was being painted as I watched. It was one of the most beautiful things I had ever saw. A planet formed under me, beautiful and vibrant. Nature and life took hold as I watched, and the planet flourished. Finally, civilization took hold. 
Cities that would match any of Earth’s grew. Countries with, what I had to assume, millions of people calling home formed. What was missing that was very common on Earth was war. There didn’t appear to have been any wars between the peoples. Even more fascinating was how nature still thrived even with the presence of civilization. 
I wasn’t sure how long I watched before something changed. In three spots around this paradise of a planet, a swirling pool of darkness formed. The next moment it looked like half the planet had been consumed. Dry wastelands, evil forests, and all manner of landscapes that just appeared wrong became the common theme of the world. 
The many great cities fell. As I watched only five still remained. There was a flash of light as they were each surrounded by barriers of light that extend miles out into the atmosphere of the planet. Then the picture just seemed to stop. 
“Welcome to Guilin! The Forsaken Realm,” a voice suddenly said.
“If that’s where we’re going at least it won’t be boring,” I commented. 
“There will plenty of work for you to do once you get down there, but for now you need to create your new body,” the voice said. I looked away from the world and saw floating eye. 
“How does an eye talk?” I asked, legitimately curious.
The eye blinked then said, “Your race has been chosen for you. There is a message.”
“Hey Hui! Since you like to dish it out to the other criminals, I had the technicians rig it a bit. Enjoy,” the voice of the guard sounded out. 
A figure appeared in front of me. At first, I thought it was just a human, then huge wings opened on his back spreading for several meters in each direction. A clear halo also appeared over his head. Its face was the same as my old one, with hard lines. What people would call a rough beauty apparently. The fact, however, was that it was a bloody angel!
“Hey eye! Surely this is against the rules?!” I shouted. 
“No errors detected. Class has been chosen. Priest,” the eye continued ignoring me. 
A white robe and staff appeared on the avatar. I couldn’t see any indication of religion so maybe that wasn’t a factor in this world. I was not a big game player so I have no way of knowing if I would be able to play this class or not. 
“Can you at least give me the details or something?!” I asked, getting a little annoyed at how this was going. 
“Affirmative. Please review. You have ten minutes,” the eye said then a glowing box formed in front of me. 

Name: Undecided

Race: Angel: As an angel you will be unable to initiate combat with intelligent life. Self-defense is only allowed after a certain threshold. 
Class: Priest (The linchpin to any party.)
Skills: Holy Light (Damage or Heal dependent on target)
Level: 1
LP: 1000 AP:1000
Curses: 
Boons: 
EXP:0/100
‘Well. This was just great!’ I thought to myself. It looked like regular hunting wouldn’t be too difficult unless the level of intelligence starts really low. I just hoped the hit from that doesn’t make it where I literally can’t do anything. I wondered how they could have races that were unable to initiate combat, I mean they were throwing a few million criminals into this game. 
“Hey Eye! What are LP and AP?” I asked.
“Responding, those would be life points and Astral points. You lose life points when you are hit. More damage from a head shot then if you are hit in the leg. You use Astral energy to power your spells and abilities,” the eye explained. 
“Simple enough. Alright what’s next?” I asked. 
“Please edit your new body. Warning! Only coloring is allowed!” the eye said. 
The spot on the avatar would be selected if I was looking at it. I wasn’t sure which way to go with coloring. All white, All black. I was a very monotone kind of guy. When I got to the wings, I played around a bit. I finally got them to look like running blood. I felt a little childish when I thought they looked cool. I decided on that and turned my avatar’s hair red as well. Now I looked like a very pissed off, bloody angel. 
“Please create a name for your new body,” the eye ordered. I felt it was getting impatient. 
Looking at my avatar, I considered for a long time. At least it felt like a long time my sense of time was getting messed up in here. I channeled my younger self again and went with Abaddon. I couldn’t help but laugh to myself when I told the eye. 
“Congratulations! Your journey now begins,” the eye said when I was done. 
The world around me shifted rapidly as I was sucked into the avatar. When I reopened my eyes, I found I could move again. I flexed my fingers finding the sensation similar yet entirely different. I was about to try to move my wings when it felt like the floor vanished from under me. I started to drop towards one of the cities in the barrier. 
The fall lasted only a minute or two, but I was able to get a good view of what was around the city. A twisted forest that looked like it had been burned three or four times surrounded it for several kilometers. I saw what might have been some ruins or just a building shaped outcropping, but I decided to set that as my mental landmark for when I leave this city. 
I landed in a courtyard with hundreds of other people. People dressed in full plate ushered us out of the courtyard as more people started to land. It was a very frantic ten seconds trying not to get kicked as people landed. I passed a man that got punted across the courtyard as he struggled against the guard and the next person landed on him. 
I just shook my head and quickly made my way out of the mess. Outside the courtyard was a city that looked like it had been bombed. People shuffled along the street, covering their heads. Guards in full plate stood on every corner but even without looking closely I could tell they were exhausted. 
I moved over the guard that got punted with the man that refused to move. I doubt he took much damage, but I wanted to test my skill as soon as possible. If it made me tired or immoveable when casting it, I wanted to know before I was in a life and death situation. I pointed towards the guard and thought the name of the skill, but nothing happened. 
“Holy Light,” I said pointing at the guard with an open palm. 
This time I felt… something leave my body then a stream of light, that reminded me more of water, shot towards the guard and sank into his body. The guard popped his neck and stood back up. 
“Thank you Displaced. We were worried when the oracles said millions would be coming to our aid but if even a third is as helpful as you then there is hope yet,” the guard bowed his head. 
That really made it click for me. I was officially dead. If my sense of time was any good, then by now my body would be at a compost plant at the city. I stared off into space for a good minute or two as I thought about my new situation in life. I was stuck in a game for… forever? Maybe. The guard was still staring at me, so I quickly replied.
“I was just testing my skill,” I said, waving him off. I would hate for him to get the wrong idea about the type of people coming to this world. 
“Is that so. No matter. A debt is a debt. I see you’re a priest. You will need to choose a faith before you reach level ten or you will no longer grow. The pantheon is in that direction,” the guard pointed down the street. 
There was suddenly an explosion down the street. I looked and saw a man in a red robe bouncing what looked like a fireball on his hand. 
“This world belongs to me now! Bring me your women! Your gold! Your… Food!”
 the man shouted, pausing on the third one as if trying to think of what to demand. 
An arrow came out of nowhere and impaled him through his head. In a very un-game like display blood, brain matter, and skull pieces went flying as his head exploded. The people around him grimaced from getting splattered and only one woman screamed in fright. I was starting to wonder if this was the city that had all the hardened killers. 
Of the maybe two hundred people that appeared while I was here, only I was wearing white. It made sense, who would want to heal in this fucked up world? Though I did see several types of winged races, no angels, however. I shook my head and followed the directions the guard gave me. If it would delay me later on, then I wanted to get it out of the way as early as possible. 
This city was in dire states. It appeared starvation was extremely common as the people were a thin as reeds. I glanced down an alley and saw at least a dozen corpses. I thought about checking if they had anything useful but decided against it. If they died in an alley, then the most I would likely get from them was a disease. 
Players flowed around me, heading in various directions. Not everyone ran off though and broke down along the streets. There were a few people that were shouting at guards that they didn’t belong here and what not. The guards just stared them down until the current person shut up and moved on. 
I noticed a few groups forming as well. From what I could tell it was usually cellmates from various prisons. I had wondered why there were women, but at least four women’s prisons were dumped here, and those were the only ones I heard by listening as I passed. That meant there were probably many more. They had to put over two hundred million players in seven different cities. It would be a tight fit if you asked me. 
While I walked, I played with my wings. It was fascinating how I knew that I never had wings before now. I could operate them without issue. I wanted to try flying but when I tried. I got a system message saying that Flying was unavailable until I was higher level. 
The Pantheon was a large building, one of the few that appeared to still be maintained, or at least wasn’t crumbling. I made my way up the large steps in front of the building. When I reached the landing with doors, I had to look up to see the entire thing. The door must have been ten meters or more tall. I was about to test to see if I could even attempt to push them open when a door the size of a regular person opened to the of the giant door. 
“Can I help you? I’m afraid I can’t offer much in the form of food, but you can warm up for a few minutes,” a young girl called. 
“Ah. I’m a priest and was told I need to choose a deity,” I said honestly. 
“AH! Come in! Come in!” She ran out and grabbed my arm. 
She pulled me towards the smaller door. I was shocked when I got inside the building. It looked like every bit of space along the floor was occupied by an injured person. Some even appeared to be on their death bed. 
“Why have these people not been healed?” I asked. This world has magic shouldn’t injuries be laughably easy to fix. 
“The priest died ten days ago. There hasn’t been anyone with the priest class in a long time,” the girl said sadly. 
“Can’t a person change their class?” I asked. 
“No, you are born or chosen you don’t get to choose,” the girl shook her head. 
“I know the feeling. What’s your name?” I asked, moving to the nearest injured.
“Lucy. What are you doing?” Lucy asked curiously. 
“Just helping out,” I said. My class is priest. If I helped heal all these people I wondered if I could get some EXP or something. It couldn’t hurt to get in good with some of the locals. “Holy Light!” 
The light streamed into the man. His heavy breathing calmed down slightly. I thought the spell would stop but as long as I kept channeling it, it continued to heal the man. When the man’s breathing returned to normal, I released the spell. I cracked my neck and looked around. I almost took a step back in surprise as most the people in the church were looking at me. 
“Priest! Please heal my child!” a woman suddenly shouted. 
“No! Heal my Father! He has only moments!” A boy maybe five years old cried. 
Various cries sounded out through the church. I was worried I was about to be mob rushed. I glanced at my status screen and saw that healing the man took nearly fifty Astral energy. 
“QUIET!” I shouted. I spread my wings, the feathers looking like streams of blood running towards the floor. I realized it was the first time I had spoken loudly since the last murder I did nearly two years ago. Everyone gathered around me instantly quieted down. “I want everyone to line up. The people that are about to die first followed by those that can last some time. Lucy will oversee this,” I ordered the crowd. 
“Yes Priest!” she said quickly. She had obviously been observing the people in the church because she knew the ones that needed immediate care and the ones that could wait. She quickly directed me to a man that was only minutes from dying. I used my Holy Light skill and there was instantly some improvement. It would still take a minute before he was out of death’s door. When I finished healing the second man something finally happened. 
Quest! Heal the People!
You have found a church full of injured and ill. Heal them all to receive the rewards. EXP +2000 Copper Coins +2 EXP based on fullness of people healed. 
I would level from this quest alone. Not sure about the coins offered, but considering the state of the city, money wasn’t really worth much when there wasn’t much to buy. The players would most likely have to build the economy ourselves. The last line either meant I would get more EXP for making sure to heal them fully or that the EXP would be based on if I healed for a second then moved on. 
I rolled up my sleeves and moved over to the next person. A woman that was missing an eye and was coughing up blood. I wondered if my level one skill would be up to the task. I took a deep breath and started channeling Astral energy.