28 A Third Generation Heretic

With the addition of new people in the line, it had grown to have about seventy two people in it.

Asher and his grandmother were somewhere in the middle of this, along with the other women that had helped Tess.

All of them were nervous about what was going to be their result. As much as they believed that they weren't heretics the previous few results had scared them.

Others had trusted that they weren't heretics either but somehow it had been proven to be false. They were deemed as second generation heretics showing that their family had hidden this from them. Then there were some that simply didn't have any family surviving to tell them the truth, while some had run away having no links with their family.

Thus the future of everyone was hanging in balance over the test. 

Tess had a comforting hold over Asher, trying to keep the boy calm. Though she could feel the fast heart beats that made his body tremble lightly. And the closer they got to the front of the line, the faster his heart throbbed.

Minute after minute passed as the people were sorted into the two groups. 

"Heretic!" The Mage declared as he saw the yellow fog in the glass orb. 

"My lord! Please spare me!" The man begged.

~SLAP~

"Silence! You will follow the orders!" The knight slapped the man.

"Lord Mage, Sacred Immortals, please spare my husband." The woman behind him begged as well.

"Leave my father, please!" the man's son did the same too.

But this only served to spark the ire of the mage.

"Oh? You are a family?" The mage narrowed his eyes. 

This made the woman and child tremble as they knew that they had just made a big mistake. The man also felt like he should not have spoken.

"Your hand!" the Knight knew what was to be done and prodded the woman.

"I-I…" The woman was forced to extend her hand which was swiftly slashed.

~SLICK~

"AHH!" The woman whimpered as blood dripped onto the orb.

~SHUA~

Fog swirled in the Heretic detector before finally disappearing without a change.

"Hold her," Mage Clor stated before looking at the man and woman's son.

He seemed to be in his twenties and was rather skinny having lacked good food similar to the majority of the people living in the Crude Lands. The only person that seemed to be well off was the supervisor who stuck out like a sore swollen knob of a thumb.

"Bring him," The Mage ordered the knight.

The armor clad man obliged and pulled the unwilling man to the front and stretched his hand over the glass orb.

~SLICK~

Just like before the dagger swiftly slashed his hand, letting blood drip onto the glass orb.

The young man bit onto his lips, holding his pain forcibly knowing that acting out here won't be good. 

~SHUA~

The fog in the Heretic Detector swirled as seconds passed. It took longer than normal, before the fog finally changed color.

"Grey… A third Generation Heretic." Mage Rizal said he he glanced at the glass orb.

At the back, the three immortals watched with intrigue too.

"Looks like we were finally able to demonstrate you what a Third Generation Heretic would look like through the Heretic Detector, Lord Immortals." Mage Pitas who was standing in attendance next to the three Immortals spoke.

"Mmm, it is quite peculiar." Immortal Yan said as his eyes scanned the youth. "Han Mu, can you feel anything using your methods?" he suddenly asked.

"Let me try," the female immortal said as she chanted something under hear breath.

~SHUA~

In the next moment, a few obscure symbols came into existence in front of her. They looked rather mysterious and could not be understood by anyone. 

"Is this… immortal runes?" Mage Pitas gulped in surprise. "I never thought I would have this opportunity today." He muttered in disbelief.

The Immortal runes floated in the air lightly before coming together and forming a large pattern that was contained within a circular form. 

~HUALA~

Immortal Han Mu flicked her fingers towards the young man, causing the pattern to fly towards him.

"Wha…" The young man didn't know what was happening and was surprised by the whole thing.

The pattern entered his body causing him to feel a strange chill. His vision went dark for a moment before returning, leaving him rather lightheaded.

"What was… that…" The young man held his head, trying to maintain his balance.

The other two mages, Mage Rizal and Mage Clor too watched it all with marvel. 

'We've only read records of this… Immortal runes truly are different than what we use.' Mage Clor thought to himself.

'How does one even go about reading them? Magic runes seem to be in a lot more simpler.' Mage Rizal thought as he glanced at them.

The mages also used runes, but they were written in a different way. The runes were essentially symbols that could be considered as a form of alphabet. The difference between Immortal and Magic runes seemed to be in terms of script itself.

The Immortal runes were a lot more complex and were composed of multiple strokes that were hard for the Mages to comprehend. 

While Magic Runes were composed of mostly straight and smooth strokes, the Immortal runes seemed to be mixed with irregular and complex strokes. Even the feeling that the Mages got from the runes was different as they couldn't sense mana from it.

After watching this though, the mages all looked at the female immortal who had cast the Immortal Spell.

She had a confused expression on her face as she comprehended what had happened.

"What is it?" Immortal Yan questioned.

"I sense… Nothing." Immortal Han Mu answered. "We really cannot tell the third Generation Heretics apart from the normal humans." She stated. 

"Huh… Looks like the humans really accomplished something." Immortal Wu Lei said, having an appreciative look on his face.

"We thank you, Lord Immortals." The three Mages said in unison.