A lone man ran across the deserted streets and alley of Marle, his boots heavily stomping on the marble pavement producing loud thumping sounds echoing in the silence of a terrified city. Suddenly the man would scream on top his lungs every ten or so steps, “Hide the children! The church is coming to kill them!” he would repeat to no one in particular; some people peeked out of their windows to check on the commotion, however, no one judged his claims as more than drunk ramblings or flat-earther theory.

The people that woke up because of by him went to bed ready to fall asleep, however, before the Sandman could visit them the sound of hooves against the ground and doors getting torn down reached their ears. Those who had children suddenly remembered what the crazy man went about shouting and rushed to hide their children; most of them could at most hide them below their beds, inside closets or dirty laundry, it's not like anyone was expecting the inquisition to show up in the middle of the night.

In one of the many houses that were being invaded, a retired veteran had locked the door to his three children's room and kept the key on himself, in his right hand a shield with a painted six-legged white bear on it, on his left hand a steel sword perfectly maintained and sharpened. The man waited in the shadows, hiding in one corner of the house, right behind the door, as a steel boot kicked down the door two armoured templars quickly made their way inside followed by an acolyte in his brownish robe.

The veteran waited no further and leapt forward slashing down on the defenceless acolyte, before the severed head of the acolyte could hit the ground the man was already leaping forward, thrusting his sword in the intersection between the neck armour and the helmet of the closest templar. Unfortunately for him, he misjudged the reaction time of the two holy soldiers and his sword screeched powerlessly against the side of the helmet bringing no harm besides some discomfort to everyone's ear.

At that moment the head of the acolyte hit the ground followed by a jet of hot blood pumped by the heart who still hadn't noticed it was over for its owner's body; one of the templars noticed the dead man and stared in a daze at the expanding pool of blood below his body, while he was distracted a shield bashed violently against his head sending him to the ground with the loud clank of heavy armour. The second more experienced templar swung down his great sword on the man's head who sidestepped the attack and countered it.

The duel between the two men lasted for some more time, the speed of the light clothed man vastly superior to a heavily armoured templar, unfortunately as slow as the heavy armour was it was impenetrable and eventually the great sword drew blood. The poor father kneeled down while grasping the gash in his abdomen, he could feel the blood spilling out from between his fingers and the organs pushing to escape through the tear in their fleshy prison; his last ounce of strength was stripped out of him when a steel boot hit the side of his head forcing his injured and strained body to the ground.

From there he could see the templar helping his friend get up from the ground and going towards his children's room, he watched in horror as they brought down the door and a metal gauntlet slapped his wife to the ground, lastly he passed away, never to wake up, as his two children were dragged outside to be cleansed by the acolytes, encased by a golden light they screamed like possessed.

Scenes like that repeated in many houses, some fought, others opened the door to the inquisition, others yet tried to escape on foot; still all of them were cleansed the same way, screams and the fire arising from some houses served as a warning for the furthest houses that something horrible was coming. What the templars didn't notice in their frenzy was that all of the cleansed children actually died under their spells, their small and immature faces twisted in pain as their brains exploded and leaked out of their small noses.

Amidst all of this, a single man kept running while shouting warnings, his tired face unable to hide the glee in his eyes as he looked back to the burning houses. 'Soon the whole city would know that the church had gone on a kid-killing spree, let's see who would help in their little inquisition then.' he thought while planning his next moves ahead.

Hours later the whole city had turned into a battlefield, while some people escaped with their children to some secret locations within the walls, their neighbours had put in motion a remarkable resistance. Pieces of furniture such as tables, beds, wardrobes and everything else that could be moved were being thrown out from their houses creating small barricades spanning from side to side of the narrow medieval streets. On top of the barricades stood friends, relatives, neighbours and concerned citizens that couldn't allow the inquisition to drown the city in innocent blood.

Battles erupted around these barricades, the mounted templars had to get down of their horses and climb the piles of furniture while being showered in arrows, bricks and anything else the poor citizens could get their hands on. When the templars would reach the top of one barricade the people would hastily retreat to the next one and once again harass them. Even the city militia had joined the fray, sworn defenders of the citizens they could tolerate the church treating the city like their playground.

With the addition of the city armed troops the inquisition forces were receiving heavy casualties, that was until the three inquisitors took the floor, each of them invested by their god with enough power to rival an army. Leading them was the bloodthirsty paladin Damsey, he pointed his sword at a barricade guarded by a dozen people and with grave voice muttered a single word. “SMITE!”

A ray of light dropped down from the heaven like a fallen angel and landed on the barricade, everything it came in contact burned and became ashes under its terrifying power, the defenders didn't even have a chance to scream as their skin and flesh evaporated in less than a second, leaving brittle scorched skeletons on a bed of ashes.

Splitting themselves barricade after barricade turned in ash, hundreds of people dying unable to even slow down the three inquisitors, however, their sacrifices weren't pointless as the children were finally brought to a safe location, away from the cleansing flame of the church. Unbeknownst to the normal people and to the church, everyone had acted like the pawns on a certain alchemist's chessboard.