Sebastian investigates the church and discovers it to be a prison. Finds only a priest and no gargoyles.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The chilly early autumn night breeze flows through the trees. Shhhhh, it silences the rest of the woods.

Sebastian eats up the excitement. The large church before him stands tall, a cathedral. Using the woods for cover he creeps over. Careful to not crack too many leaves or make any movements visible from outside the woods. Eyes peeled for priests and celestials. His eyes keep marveling up at the large gargoyle statue on the roof of the church.

In front of the church, he dives behind some bushes. A priest comes out and stands at the bottom of the stairs from the entrance. Several seconds later the priest walks off into the woods. The coast is clear.

Out of the bushes and into the church Sebastian races. He hides between the pews and crawls over to the west wall. “Maybe in the lower floors,” Sebastian whispers acknowledging the empty nave. He sneaks through the nearest door. The only door. The stairway to the lower level. A stone dungeon. Lab equipment litters the corners. A deep purple glowing archway to a hallway filled with doors in either direction. A table in the middle of the dungeon with tools covered in blood.

“If they need a guard dog for anything, it's for this,” he says.

Into the hallway, Sebastian goes peeking through the slit on each door. Six doors total.

Nothing behind the first.

The second has a bloodied single bunk but nothing in it.

The third has a young bearded man clothed in rags sitting on the edge of his bed meditating.

“Hey!” Sebastian whispers to get his attention.

The man looks over, sees Sebastian and looks away returning to his meditation.

“Hey!” Sebastian says again and tries to pull and then push the door open to no effect. It won’t even budge. “Can you hear me?” he asks.

When he gets no response he goes for the fourth door.

Another person. Delicate and Indistinguishable from male or female.

“Hey!” Sebastian tries again on this person. “Hey, can you hear me?” But again he gets no response. This one doesn’t even look over.

In the fifth a motionless woman staring at the slit in the door. She locks eyes with Sebastian but also doesn’t respond.

Sebastian feels himself get lighter and his feet lift from the floor. He tries to get back down to no avail. He’s tossed out of the hall and lands near the bloody table. Immediately he looks back to see the same priest that left to the woods standing before the woman’s prison cell.

“Intrusive child. How unfortunate to find yourself here of all place,” the priest says walking over.

Sebastian jumps to his feet and backs away standing behind the table across from the priest.

“Who are those people in the cells?” Sebastian demands answers.

“That is none of your concern, nosy child,” the priest responds. Lifts his right hand and fires a beautiful spiral beam of purple energy at Sebastian tossing him further out of the dungeon, near the stairway.

Still on the floor, Sebastian takes off his backpack and pulls out two loose pages, puts them both flat on the floor and puts one palm on either sheet.

The dungeon begins to shake stones loose and they fall from over the priest. He’s forced to focus on blasting them to save himself. Sebastian uses the distraction to race up the stairs to the nave.

Another sheet is drawn from the backpack and placed against the door back to the stairs. It glows gold and the door disappears. As he tries to run out of the church, the floor by the exit explodes. Out of it jumped the priest glowing with a purple aura. Furious.

Sebastian draws a book from the bag and tosses the bag away. “Holy Scripture” written on the cover of the book. He reads, “Da imperium exhibet scientiae.” He throws the book over with the bag and his entire body begins to glow purple like the priest’s. “Okay, I’m ready now,” Sebastian says.

The priest smirks at the child. “I’d swear you were an oracle if I couldn’t sense your divine energy. You’re something else... No matter. You aren’t ready for a thing,” he says and phases out of sight re-phasing behind Sebastian. He grabs Sebastian’s head and point blank fires an explosive beam.

Sebastian is thrown out of the church. Scrambles back to his feet. Surges of purple electricity wrap around his arms and focus on the palms of his hands. He aims them at the priest and fires a fast beam.

The priest calmly phases out of the way of the beam. Again, reappears behind Sebastian.

“Not this time,” Sebastian says. He rolls away from the priest grabbing him again, gets back to his feet and points to the church.

The priest pauses and stares at the church. The kid’s beam created a large transmutation circle over the archway.

“No!” The priest screams.

“You weren’t ready, “ Sebastian says.

The priest phases and reappears beneath the arch as it begins to break the church apart. A deep purple explosion comes from the priest's body. The shock wave knocks Sebastian down. The explosion clears and the church is in perfect condition again. The priest weakened beneath the arch.

Sebastian races to stand over the priest. “Guess this is it for you,” he says.

“Think again,” the priest responds.

The church begins to shake again. The ground shakes. A loud screech. Pebbles begin to fall from the roof of the church.

With his last breath of consciousness, the priest fires one more bean at confused Sebastian. He’s thrown out and lands back to the grass facing the church. The gargoyle statue on the roof flaps it’s giant stone wings and lands before the boy. It stands half the height of the cathedral.