Badge in Azure

Theisio was less than a hundred miles away from Guderian City. He intended to rush to the city, but the oracle had other thoughts.

The other two oracles remained back in Holy City. If he knew what had just happened was going to happen, Theisio would not have allowed the oracle to tag along.

He felt like slapping himself. If he had not insisted on asking for three days off, the oracle would not have gotten interested in leaving Holy City.

The trip had been awful. The oracle was interested in just about everything they saw and wanted research everything. Theisio had began to suspect if that oracle was simply a mage in disguise.

But then again, mages would not have a temper as bad as the oracle’s. After spending some time with them, Theisio was shocked at the true nature of the oracle.

Greedy, lustful, feverish, distrustful, pretentious…

All of the shortcomings mentioned by their god were shown in the oracle. Aren’t these oracles beings closest to god? They were only a little over than a hundred miles from Guderian City, but the oracle altered their flight path and took Theisio to the mountains and dove into the cave.

Theisio was almost rendered mad by the oracle’s antics. The cave had many twists and turns, leading deep into the ground. He had no idea why the oracle had insisted on going to such depths to search the place. Is there a beautiful female adherent waiting below or something?

The regal, shinning figure of the oracle shimmered, attracting all sorts of bugs and monsters below ground, which attacked them. The oracle killed all of them. Holy Light Shimmer alone proved adequate to overwhelm all beings below level seven. It felt like a scenario where two sides were at war, but one side simply blew at their enemy and won.

“Lord Oracle, may I ask what are you looking for down here?” Theisio was unable to help but ask.

“Something a heretic god left behind, probably shards of divine persona.” The oracle answered without bothering to hide anything. Their level was one whole level higher than Theisio’s and had far greater power of faith compared to him. They did not fear what Theisio was capable of pulling to go against them.

Divine persona shards!

Theisio was shocked. The oracle continued, “That might not be it, maybe just some god bones or snuffed out seeds of divine fire.”

The oracle answered in a natural manner, not even bothering to add other descriptive words like ‘heretic god.’

Their advent was not ordained by their god. The Lord of Glory was fighting a war and the gods of other planes had already invaded the kingdom of gods. The three oracles went absent without leave from the battlefield and somehow managed to get summoned by Theisio.

“Lord Oracle!”

“Alright, alright, Theisio. Whatever you’re dealing with, it’s nothing compared to what’s at hand here.” The oracle cut Theisio off impatiently. In their eyes, an army of over a million-strong waiting for his orders to launch a full frontal assault was something completely insignificant.

If the oracle was able to find broken divine personas, light up their own divine fire, break through the limit of level 13 and finally devour the shards of divine persona, they would be able to advance to the ranks of demigod.

Myers Mainland is really a nice place. No wonder countless gods back then had tried to conquer the place. There is just so much wealth and so many secrets to be found on the mainland.

“My lord, there is a million-strong army waiting for us!” Theisio had enough. He had been planning the operation solely to lure Saleen out. He had found the weakness of the mage that earned the oracle’s attention, the defiler, and that weakness was his loved ones.

“Alright, Theisio. You’re afraid that your target is going to run off somewhere else, correct? If we can find whatever is down there, even if he’s going to run back to that Metatrin City you speak of, I’d simply go to tear the city down myself,” the oracle said without a care. They only gained such confidence after descending to that plane. A level 12 oracle caught in the midst of a war between kingdoms of gods was but a mid-level officer.

Despite having their powers reduced by one whole level after descending to that plane, the oracle still had the rules they controlled with them. No one would be good enough to fight me.

It’s best if the Lord of Glory ends up dead. That wretched a** has been assimilating heavens of each planes into his kingdom of gods, trying to fight his enemy to the death. According to the oracle’s estimations, even if the Lord of Glory was able to survive, he would have to go into deep sleep. A god who entered deep sleep would not be able to remember who the oracle was.

If the oracle were able to get their hands on the divine persona shards and wiped out the other two, they would be able to do whatever they fancied.

The oracle laughed sheepishly at the thought. Their voice travelled deep into the cave, causing rocks to fall from above from the tremor.

Theisio was exasperated. He was unable to do anything but to take whatever the oracle said seriously. If the oracle is indeed capable of destroying Metatrin City, good for us. We can finally rest easy after that prick is gone.

They went more than a mile deep, and the air was clammy and hot, as well as very dry. The complexity of the cave exceeded designs of some magic labyrinths. The oracle cared little about that due to having left behind many markings along the way. They even created a temporary coordinate at the entrance, allowing them to leave Theisio behind and run away on their own if anything untoward was to happen.

Divine persona shards are not something that one could get their hands on easily after all. The same goes for seeds of divine fire.

The oracle continued to walk forward. They were alerted all of a sudden and stopped.

“Theisio, did you hear anything?”

Theisio listened seriously for a bit and shook his head.

“Hand me your God Grace Staff.” The oracle extended their arm.

“No. Only the Lord of Glory has the right to strip me of my scepter. It wouldn’t do you any good even if I were to give it to you.” Theisio shook his head. The God Grace Staff was an important equipment of his, the most important of the three major godly items of the pope. While the Bramble Crown had formidable defensive properties, it did not have much in the way of attacks. The Seal of Divine Power had been lost for over a millennium. The one he had with him was a fake.

The oracle frowned but did not pressure Theisio. If they killed the pope, the Lord of Glory would be able to sense it. If an oracle were to fall, the Lord of Glory would send a double into the plane.

“Heh, hand me the Seal of Divine Power then. It might be a fake, but it’s still something that adherents had been worshipping for over a millennium, so it’s still of some use.” The oracle extended their hand. Theisio had no choice but to hand over the fake Seal of Divine Power to the oracle. He had no way of refusing. If the oracle were to tell others, he would lose the trust of the adherents even though he was not the one who lost the seal.

At that moment, Theisio’s faith began to waver.

Why am I even hiding it in the first place? Why did the previous pope not let the adherents know that the three godly items were no longer a complete set, and therefore no longer able to suppress infidels?

I might have come with the oracle, but why can’t I simply head to Guderian City myself? If Saleen reached the city earlier than expected, my army would suffer unusually heavy casualties.

Theisio still remembered in his dream where Saleen swung a bone hammer and beat a terrifying war drum. His army of adherents seem to be like grass at the mercy of a scythe, being slaughtered by all manners of terrifying creatures.

What was more terrifying was that the fear stemmed from reality. If Saleen were to reach the city before he did, the mage would definitely use lethal skills with large area of effect. Would the powerful ones in the army be capable of facing off against Saleen?

Theisio felt bitter looking at the back of the oracle. He had begun to have doubts. While the divine persona of the heretic god was indeed important. If the oracle were to get their hands on the shards, their powers would have been returned to level 12, and it was entirely possible for a level 12 oracle to tear Metatrin City apart.

The oracle held onto the fake Seal of Divine Power and summoned 12 heaven angels to serve as scouts. The three oracles were not carrying any equipment with them when they descended. They were not gods, so they were only able to allow their bodies to traverse the planes. It was not pragmatic for them to bring anything with them, as even their clothes were something created using divine spells.

There was a smell of sulfur before them and several black shadows were seen writhing, crawling out of the depths of the hole in the ground. The shadowy figures were shone on by the light of the oracle, resulting in them shrieking eerily. Their skins began to pee,l and they writhed on the ground, attempting to get near to the oracle.

The oracle wore no expression, finding it surprising that their Holy Light Purification was unable to kill the monsters right away.

The 12 heaven angels went up and swung their swords of glory, killing the monsters in an instant. All the monsters turned to dust.

The oracle did not stop and kept moving forward. If they were able to get their hands on whatever was deep inside the cave, they would have the chance to become a god. Who else is as lucky as I am? I’m an oracle, but when I descended to this plane, the gods knew nothing.

Such a chance would probably not happened even once in millions of years.

Greed is an original sin, the nature of all living beings! The oracle kept moving forward. The 12 heaven angels’ steps synchronized with the rhythm of the oracle’s steps.

Theisio hesitated for a bit before deciding to follow them as well. While the three oracles were nothing like what he had imagined, they nonetheless allowed huge amounts of professionals within the Holy See to advance and treated his injuries. He would have died of old age otherwise.

Maybe I’m just too foolish to understand the thoughts of God and the oracles.

More and more monsters appeared before them, and the 12 heaven angels began to show signs of strain killing the monsters. Within the codex of the Holy See, all of the monsters were evil creatures, which meant that the damage dealt by the swords of glory would have been greater. But still, it was heaven angels who ended up injured.

Being shined on by holy light, the monsters, which were about half as tall as a human, writhed in agony on the ground on all fours, charging at them without any comprehension of death.

“Disgusting, vile creatures!” The oracle shrieked on instinct. They held the Seal of Divine Power high. The holy light spread miles away, and more shril shrieks were heard from countless branches of the hole they were in.

“Halt, who goes there? Who is your god?” A thick voice was heard from the depths of the cave. The oracle’s eyes sparkled hearing the voice. There is indeed someone waiting down there.

Seems like a seed of divine fire instead of shards of divine persona then.

Whatever. Becoming a pseudogod takes precedence. It was only a matter of time finding shards of divine persona on this plane. The war between the Lord of Glory and his enemy gods will at least go on for hundreds of years. I have plenty of time to search.