C7: Readable Face, Unreadable Mind

Clang! Clang! Clangclangclang!

Three cylinders, each a foot tall, crashed onto the hard floor. Even though the safety regulations required the valves to be impervious to such sudden incidents, two of the three valves flew open as if they hadn't been properly locked in at all!

Even in his enhanced observation mode, Bishop Alcius barely managed to detect it when the first flicker of orange flame was conjured beneath the slowly rolling cylinders. Less than a quarter of a second had passed after the valves burst open, and all three cylinders were already forming a combined wave of scarring, searing heat ready to expand its orange-red body.

Bishop Alcius' focus zoomed in on the countenance of their test subject, the boy in the wheelchair. Contrary to their expectations, he was frozen in his seat, eyes tracking the blooming fiery wall rushing towards his face. The nurses and the security guard wore half-complete looks of horror, having barely gotten the time to react. Even the two workers pushing the bucket were too stunned to move.

"After diving into the awakening matrix pool in our Tower, he should have as good a reflex as any of his thousand peers. His brain has a better capacity to analyze the sudden input of visual data compared to the commoners escorting him. Yet, even they have managed to detect the danger and come to the conclusion that they must move away as far as possible from the source of the danger." The perpetrator of the situation continued to send his analysis inside Bishop Alcius' brain.

As the explosive surge of fire rushed towards the boy, who was at the front of the group, Bishop Alcius couldn't help but grow apprehensive.

This was the first devotee of an entirely new deity about whom they knew nothing. Was it truly wise to sacrifice the boy to test the deity's nature?

"Look at him. Still frozen in the face of death. Do you think it's because he has confidence in the protection of his deity? Or... is it perhaps because he might have predicted that this situation would befall him when he stepped outside the cabin?"

Are you going to stop the fire or not?

That was what Bishop Alcius wanted to shout. But there was not enough time to even utter the first syllable.

"Worry not. I have no plans to have him harmed. He's more useful living than dead to us. And I have a suspicion that he knows this as well," said the voice in his mind. But instead of the speaker, someone else acted the part promised.

Streaks of red sparks flashed past the two of them from behind, smashing into the fiery wave.

The surge of fire split up and crashed into the walls on their sides, leaving an ashen imprint. As more and more bursts of flames continued to take birth under the rolling cylinders, large invisible hands seemed to slap the oncoming waves away, again and again until the fire was confined to the bodies of the cylinders on the ground.

The shockwave caused by the small explosion was, however, not dealt with by the sudden savior. An ear-splitting sound rammed the walls and the glass windows nearby, and the air pressure was enough to throw everyone within a dozen feet on the floor.

Merrywick slammed lightly into the wall to his right. Screams and yells erupted within seconds. The entire hospital woke up to the noise, panic overtaking the sleepy people. The first sun wasn't even up yet. What could such a terrible explosion signify if not a massive accident?

Bishop Alcius turned around to look for the unexpected rescuer who had used his Acolyte-grade mastery of a fire-elemental spell to save the boy. However, the electricity in this part of the floor had been disrupted when the low-ranked mage had cast his desperate spell. The entire corridor was submerged in darkness. Had their area not been isolated from the rest of the hospital, the repercussions of the electricity failure could have easily caused a few deaths.

By the time the lights blinked to life, a large crowd had formed behind them already. There was no easy way to determine who it might be if the mage wanted to hide his identity.

"Judging by the boy's reaction, there's only one possibility," his companion said from the side. "He knew he didn't have to do anything at all. As to how he knew that... It might be a bit difficult to discern that, I'm afraid."

"Your grace, must we endanger the commoners in the process of testing him? Surely, the Cardinals or the Pope can find out more about the thirteenth deity by simply monitoring the boy."

"There was no endangering, Bishop," the man said, his gaze locked on the crowd. "I knew that rat from the law enforcers was tailing you. I merely used this scene to force him out and establish our superiority here. The federation would hate to see a new deity be suppressed right now. They do need an ally. Who better than a naive boy to empower them with the force of a deity?"

"What if he didn't manage to control the fire?" Alcius asked.

The man's cold gaze bore into Bishop Alcius' face upon sensing the reproach in his tone.

"How many times have you applied to the central Church the be promoted to the same rank as mine, Bishop Alcius?"

Alcius' lips formed a thin line.

"When your superior asks you a question, you should answer it, Bishop."

"Four times, your grace," Bishop Alcius said in a tight tone.

"Do you know why each application failed?"

"No, Archbishop."

"I just told you why."

"...Pardon?" Alcius said incredulously.

The Archbishop performed a standard Church salute and disappeared behind a golden flash of lights invisible to the commoners on the floor, leaving a final message to Bishop Alcius' brain.

"The boy just had the chance to kickstart a following of his patron deity by saving everyone with some extraordinary measures. But he didn't take it. It seems to me that he isn't quite as intelligent as the situation requires him to be. Be mindful of that, and keep an eye out for outsiders. I'm certain that forces not associated with our Church will try to take control of the boy from our hands."

As the crowd advanced past him, Bishop Alcius quietly cast a weak shroud of invisibility around his body with a simple chromatic spell, his mind abuzz with the impact of their entire exchange. Merrywick was pushed out of the area by one of his escorts under his request while the rest of them stayed in the corridor to deal with the aftermath of the explosion.

Alcius followed them all the way to the morgue. When the doctor on duty pulled the body carriers out of the freezing compartment, Bishop Alcius' focus was fully invested in the transitions of Merrywick's countenance.

The first emotion to play out in his eyes was curiosity, not grief.

For the next five minutes, the boy watched and tentatively touched the corpses a few times, which might have convinced a normal observer that he truly was having difficulties dealing with the reality of seeing his parents' corpses.

But Alcius was sure, that the tears glinting in the young man's eyes had nothing to do with grief. In fact, as he was heading out of the morgue, Alcius even noticed a shadow of a relieved smile on the boy's face.

A rabbit-hole of doubts opened up in Alcius' mind about what exactly had taken place inside the maglev shuttle before the accident.