Baro stood at the top of the stairs.
The church loomed above, silent and watching. The air was thinner. The light felt distant. The clouds hovered just out of reach.
He clutched Furfur to his chest.
"We've made it," he whispered.
The doors opened on their own.
Inside was stillness.
A woman stood in the center of the sanctuary. She held a candle between both hands. Armor covered her body. A wide straw hat shadowed her face. Her white hair was straight and long. Her smile was wide. Too wide.
"A visitor?"
Baro hesitated.
Something about her was wrong. But he moved forward.
"I'm here to ascend," he said. "I climbed the stairs."
Her smile stretched. Her teeth looked sharp.
"Nn." She nodded. "Sit."
He sat. The bench creaked under him.
"So… what now? Do I pray?"
She didn't answer right away as she sat perfectly still.
"Prayer is common," she said at last. "Anyone can kneel."
She stepped forward once.
"To become Sacred… you must offer something greater than words."
Another step.
"You must leave it behind."
"Is this what everyone does?" he asked. "All who climb the stairs?"
Her answer came without pause.
"No."
Baro's jaw tensed.
"So what happens if I refuse?"
"You descent," she said. ""If you want to go back down now, I will not stop you."
"Has anyone ever gone back down?"
"Yes," she said. "A few."
Baro was quiet.
Then, slowly, he stepped forward.
Furfur let out a soft sound, uncertain.
Baro knelt, set him gently on the cold stone floor.
"I'm ready."
The smile returned.
"What are you going to sacrifice? It must be something you hold dear otherwise it won't be enough for you to advance."
"Not telling."
Baro held Furfur close as a divine light started emitting from his body.
'Such powerful faith, I wonder what could he possibly sacrifice to achieve such a thing?' she thought
"Is that all?" Baro's voice was almost mocking, but with an edge of something sharper. Something that made her pause.
"What do you mean?!"
"I can just keep on sacrificing right? he said with a devilish grin
"Eh?!" the woman blinked.
A blinding flash of light erupted from Baro's form, sweeping through the church. The woman's eyes widened in shock as the energy coursed from him like a tidal wave of divine radiance.
For a moment, the woman stood there, her expression frozen in disbelief.
"You see," Baro said, his voice now deep with authority, "I am the sacrifice."
"How foolish..." the white haired woman looked down with disgust. "Trying to prove yourself by extinguishing your own life, you won't even get to enter the Sacred doors before disappearing."
"I will disappear? What have I done?!" he gasped, a momentary crack in his confident demeanor.
For a split second, the woman's eyes narrowed, her stance unmoving. And then—
"Just kidding!"
Baro's grin returned, stretching from ear to ear, gleaming with the sharpness of a man who had just pulled the wool over the divine's eyes. The absurdity of his response hit the woman like a chill wind, a dissonance she couldn't quite place. He should've been broken. Weak. Frail. But instead, he stood before her, brimming with energy—like a man who had just conquered an impossible feat with a flick of his wrist.
The woman blinked, her confusion barely registering in her stoic features. "...You're not… drained?"
Baro's grin only widened as he straightened his posture, a gleam of amusement flashing in his eyes. "So can I go now? I want to see what it's like being a Sacred."
Her lips twitched, but no answer came. Only the eternal silence.
"Yes, you may proceed, follow me," she said, voice as cold as ever, her eyes unreadable. Her steps echoed in the stone hall, the silence growing heavier with every footfall.
Baro followed her, the darkness closing in around them. The passageway was small, oppressive, its cold stone walls exuding a stark bleakness, as if the very passageway had swallowed the light from above. A chill ran through Baro, though he didn't show it—he could feel it. The weight of expectations. The looming presence of power.
They arrived at a small room, its dimensions tight and suffocating. A single, dim light hung overhead, casting shadows that seemed to warp and twist like the dark thoughts within the woman's mind.
"Take these robes," the woman said, her voice steady and almost mechanical. "They prove you are worthy of being called Sacred."
Baro's eyes flickered to the robes—white, pristine, intricate. They were the symbol of everything he had been striving for, the mark of divinity itself. But as he stepped forward to take them, a sly grin crossed his face once more.
"Oh, thanks!" Baro said with a playful bounce in his step, his voice dripping with mock innocence. "But… will you just look at me while I change into them?"
The woman did not respond for a moment, her posture as rigid as before. Her lips parted as she spoke.
"I lost such desires long ago."
Baro chuckled, a soft, almost imperceptible sound. He knew—he could tell. Her heart had been long hardened by the divine, long emptied of warmth or curiosity. She was a relic, just like this place—frozen in time.
Without another word, Baro stepped into the small, solitary corner of the room to change, the robes slipping over his body like a second skin.
As he donned the sacred robes, a single thought flickered across his mind.
'I wonder what people here are like'
He finished changing and turned back toward the woman, his grin widening again, an unsettling calm in his eyes. He stood before her now,
"So… What's next?" Baro asked, his voice light.