Demon Hunters

Casus Belli II

"You may enter."

Bruno von Richter, the head inquisitor of the church was, by many accounts, a very atypical member of the institution. Most everyone who had made it to the upper echelons of the church had a vice. These ranged from gluttony to lust and sometimes even further. Yet this wasn't the case for him: there was no sign of excess fat on his body, and the man had lived in celibacy for the last three decades. That is to say, he was a spitting image of what the church wanted its followers to aspire toward – and, at the same time, this was the reason he counted among the most hated men on the continent. Von Richter had no weakness anyone could exploit, which had spelled the end to anyone brave enough to challenge him. He was by no means an angel, of course: he often deliberately overlooked blatant corruption only to then use it as leverage later on when he needed to ensure his own position. In his meteoric rise to one of the highest positions the church had to offer, he had been aided by two factors: his razor-sharp wit and his adopted son, Gabriel, who had just entered the room.

"Father."

"Mhm. Sit."

Gabriel walked over to the only available chair in the room. Despite being inconceivably rich, his adoptive father chose to keep his personal quarters sparsely decorated: besides his desk and the two chairs, the only pieces of furniture in the room were his modest bed and a small drawer.

"Stained glass is not cheap, as you are no doubt aware."

"I felt that punishing the transgressors was more important than worrying about that. Besides, the assets seized from the corrupt priest should be more than enough to cover the costs."

"Perhaps so. However, there are some dark clouds forming over the horizon, and I fear that the church may soon need all the money it can possibly muster."

Gabriel raised an eyebrow. He should have been rather well-informed – typically, Bruno made sure of that – but he wasn't aware of anything that could prove to be such a threat to the church. He took off his gloves and brushed back his dark hair.

"That sounds most concerning. What might you be referring to?"

Bruno sighed and rubbed his bald head. Typically, his mood was incredibly difficult to gauge, but much to his surprise, Gabriel noted that his father's expression was now clearly strained.

"While you were on your mission, I've started to receive rather alarming reports. It would appear that our situation has started to deteriorate far faster than I could have ever anticipated," the head inquisitor explained. "If we leave things as they are, we will have a war on our hands very soon. And one I'm not certain that we will be able to win."

Gabriel shifted uncomfortably. Bruno didn't make a habit of sugar-coating matters, nor was he known for exaggerations. As such, Gabriel understood that the situation was exceedingly dire. Like his father, Gabriel was a realist, and he understood full well how many people hated the church – after all, he had had to kill hundreds of people for this very reason. Still, up until this point, the worst threat to the church's undisputed rule had been rebellions incited by greedy dukes and, on rare occasions, less important kings. Naturally, such nuisances had been easy to crush, so the thought of anything posing an actual threat to the church seemed almost unbelievable.

"I hope you can help me understand this situation," Gabriel said. "I was under the impression that we still held a dagger to the back of every major ruler across the continent."

Bruno nodded and placed his quill in its inkwell. He then turned his piercing gaze to Gabriel. Though the colour in his eyes had started to fade after the man had entered his fifties, there was still an enormous amount of strength in the look he gave Gabriel.