"Chapel of the Sacred Flame and the Venerated Archangel Decus, Our Saviour and the Creator of Eden"
The words had been carved into the sign of a small wooden building. The Legionnaire knew that this was where the Vigil held most of its religious service - practices often questionable in nature, but perhaps still honest in their Faith. He had come to atone for his sins and repent in a way that those who called themselves the True Faithful did to ease the pain he carried within his heart.... and truly he did repent.
The Lord's Thirteen Lashes are struck with a nasty barbed whip. In order to repent proper the Faithful must not only reflect on their sins, but also feel the physical pain that their sin has brought forth. The Faithful must reject each of the Thirteen Thrones knowing that every time they do so they will feel the great pain of a whip lash tearing their flesh. Those strong enough to withstand the lashes and reject all Thrones truly seek the Lord's forgiveness. The first and the last lashes are considered the worst; the first strikes break the body, and the last strikes break the willpower.
Shouts from within the Chapel urging the Legionnaire to repent attracted a Faithful after another to come and see the ceremony. The nasty whip had its barbs sink into the man's flesh time after another, breaking the skin and then tearing the flesh as they were violently pulled from his back. Blood spilled to stain the floor, the benches and the walls with its crimson. It formed small pools to the stone altar like some morbid sacrifice to the One True God that many revered as the Most Holy.
The demands to repent were soon accompanied by praises to the Archangel. Many curious Faithful had entered the Chapel to see if the repenting Legionnaire could defeat his physical pain to conquer an even greater pain, to encourage him... and to see if he was a True Believer.
