As he swore his life and his very soul to her, he felt her power flow into his veins. His blood became filled with her divinity. He returned to the Church a year or so afterwards, trying to offer them the same salvation. But after his former brothers rejected his offer, blinded by ignorance, calling him a heretic and a blasphemer, he saw no other option than to force it upon them. He didn’t want to, but he couldn’t just let them suffer any further. He bound them with his power, he guided the Matriarch into their bodies and souls, blessed them on her behalf with his newly divine blood. Yet still they rejected her blessing. Still they rejected him. Blinded by his rage towards their ignorance, he decided that if they would not accept salvation in life, then they would be granted it through death. He conjured a sword in the palm of his hand, made from his own blood, then slaughtered every single one of his former brothers, and as he did he could not notice his human form changing.

He couldn’t notice the crimson tears of blood leaking from his now deep red eyes, he could not feel the writhing mass or tentacles replacing his abdomen, and he could not feel the pain of the blood within his veins almost erupting into fire. When the final one was slain, when he had severed his head from his body, he then realized the severity of what he’d done; what atrocity he had committed. His gift was not to be used like that, as a force of violence or to be forced upon those who rejected it, and with his transformation he realized this. He desperately prayed to his goddess for forgiveness, and though his changes wouldn’t be reversed, he was indeed forgiven. No longer is he just Roderic, no longer is he just a pawn of an absent golden god. He is now Roderic, Minister of Blood, and the loyal Preacher of the Crimson Matriarch.

And to all who are willing to listen, to all who wish to give him even a glance, he will spread his message happily. But to all those who would seek to bring down his goddess, or who seek to harm him and his fellow followers, he will not keep his blade sheathed. His steel shall be swift, and the blood of the opposition shall be given to his Matriarch. This is his promise. This his his vow. And he shall uphold it till his last breath.