War for Justice Chapter 3: Chapter 2 - The doorway to hell (2/2)

Read chapter 3 of War for Justice by Arthur on NovelPedia.

Chapter 2 - The doorway to hell (2/2) The verse remained on Arthur’s screen long after the typing indicator disappeared. {When news of battle reaches you and the blood of Aelions is spilled, your faith is measured by your decision.} Book of Law and War - Chapter 3, Verse 26. The blue light from the monitor illuminated brightly in the dark room. He did not need to reread it. The verse lived somewhere permanent inside him. Why this verse? Why now? Arthur typed. "Why are you telling me this? I don’t understand what you expect from me." There was no reply for nearly a full minute. Then a file appeared. Video_Clip_17.mp4 Arthur stared at the filename. His room felt unusually quiet. Even the faint hum of his computer seemed louder than before. He pressed play. The footage was grainy. Shaky. Taken from a distance, perhaps from behind rubble or through a cracked window. A shrine stood alone in an open stretch of sand. Its white walls were modest but dignified, the architecture unmistakable. It looked almost identical to his. A sudden whistling sound cut through the audio. The first artillery shell struck the courtyard. The screen jolted violently. Dust swallowed the frame. Screams pierced through static. Students ran - some in long robes, some barefoot. A second explosion landed closer to the entrance. A body lifted into the air and disappeared behind smoke. Arthur’s breath stopped without him realizing. Gunfire followed. Someone fell while trying to pull another person to safety. The camera dropped. The footage ended. The silence that followed was heavier than the explosions. Another notification appeared. Images. Arthur opened the first. A narrow street. Bodies covered in ash and debris. A child’s hand visible beneath a torn cloth. Second image. Women lying near a collapsed wall. No movement. Third image. A river cutting through desert rock. The water faintly red, diluted but unmistakable. The surface carried small pieces of debris - and something else Arthur refused to identify. He swallowed. The shrine in the video… the pillars… the courtyard layout… It looked too familiar. His fingers felt cold as he typed. "Why are you showing me this? I live far away. I cannot help them." "And stop trying to manipulate me. I can block and report you anytime." The reply came slower this time. "I'm not trying to manipulate anyone here, you can block me anytime you want, my account got banned 5 times this week" "But just to let you know, my responsibility is to open doorway to my fellow brothers" Arthur stared at the words. Another message followed. "A doorway to salvation." Arthur leaned back in his chair and let out a quiet breath that almost sounded like laughter. Salvation? "You're doing too much here, I told you I can't do anything. If you have a solution please tell me." The typing indicator blinked. Stopped. Blinking again. "Join us." "Join the resistance in Ledoria." This reply was anticipated by Arthur Arthur’s eyes drifted to the bookshelf above his desk. Portraits stared back at him -generals who had defied empires, reformers who had sparked revolutions, men who had been remembered. Men who had done something. What have I done? His reflection in the monitor looked smaller than usual. Another vibration. "If you think deeper, you were chosen for this." Arthur’s chest tightened. Chosen. The word echoed too cleanly. It was not the first time he had heard it. He was twelve again, standing in the study hall of the shrine. The Book of Faith lay open before him. Nearly five hundred pages committed to memory. The elder had stopped the session mid-lecture. “Recite Chapter Nine,” he had said. Arthur had done so without hesitation. When he finished, the elder placed a hand on his shoulder, eyes gleaming. “I have not seen someone your age comprehend scripture this way,” the elder had murmured. “It is as though you were prepared for something greater.” Prepared. Dinner table. The smell of lamb and warm bread. Arthur had been fourteen. “Why can’t I re