Badge in Azure

Nico Cathedral was heavily guarded and the people of the Holy See were nervous. The Pope did not intend to be secretive about any news of the Holy War. Within this holy city, it was even rumoured that mages from Alchemy City were lying in ambush.

After the passing of Emperor Chanake, Holy Rock City’s support for Alchemy City began to reduce, but that did not deter Alchemy City mages from coming over for revenge.

If anyone thought that mages should face each other outrightly and challenge each other to a proper magic duel, then they must be mistaken. In order to achieve the objective, death mages sometimes might even resort to releasing poison to kill an entire city’s worth of enemies and create even more death troops. Although such incidents only occurred during wars between countries, suffice to say, mages were not a pedantic group.

The Holy See murdered Emperor Chanake and angered the mages of Alchemy City. To date, at least four sorcerers were still in the Tanggulasi Kingdom, waiting for an opportunity to wreak havoc of a massive scale.

The knights in front of the cathedral were not worried about the sorcerers at all. The Holy City was where the Holy See’s headquarter was located and powerful Holy Masters were everywhere. If the sorcerers dared to attack the Nico Cathedral, they might as well forget about leaving.

Within the Holy City, almost all the Cardinals had gathered at Nico Cathedral, but less than ten were genuinely participating in the meeting.

Beside Pope Theisio sat Chief Pope Sharjah, and on his other side were five red bishops. Sitting opposite him were two people; one wore a black robe and looked to be around seventy years old, while the other wore a white robe and looked to be slightly past thirty years old.

“Your Excellency, since God has passed the decree and the Holy War has begun, then I shall utilize the Knights of Darkness from the Black Dungeon.” The elderly man in the black robe clearly did not respect Theisio. His tone was casual and did not sound like a request at all.

“Precisely. One of our duties as Oracles is to spread the faith. Your Excellency, according to the Code, we have the right to gather knights too,” the middle-aged man in the white robe agreed. His body language was arrogant.

“Humph!” Theisio snickered. He had a full head of white hair that seemed to glow with holy light, suddenly brightening up the dark meeting room.

“Head inquisitor Lucashenko and the Second Oracle, do you think that our current strength is sufficient to conquer the Mainland?” Seeing that there was no rebuke from the two, Theisio continued, “The royal family of the Sikenqinyans have developed a strong and powerful army that never leaves the royal city. No one knows the size of this army, nor the kind of equipment they have. Cloudflow has an invincible fleet that can spring a sneak attack on our cities by the sea. Although it is a blow to Qin that Chanake died, are you confident in destroying Alchemy City?”

“The Sikenqinyans can be bribed.” The black-robed head inquisitor did not continue to go against Theisio. He knew that if the Holy See continued to build up strength for another fifty years, the situation on the Mainland would change completely. In fact, just twenty years would be sufficient for them to defeat the three Kingdoms. Right now, they needed allies in order to achieve victory though.

You can bribe them, but so can others. The Sikenqinyans are not reliable and the Cloudflows are not on friendly terms with us. We might as well think of how to recover back to our full strength as soon as possible. The number of Blood Knights are just too little,” Theisio gave Lucashenko a sharp glare.

“Your Excellency, the Supreme Court has about one-hundred-thousand Blood Knights. They should be sufficient to withstand any attacks from the Cloudflow Kingdom,” Lucashenko revealed, before continuing, “For the Supreme Court to support the Sacred Knights, it is necessary to deploy forces from the Black Dungeon. Besides, it is time for us bring out our experiment.”

The Second Oracle let out a dreary sound, obviously showing displeasure towards what Lucashenko said. The disagreement between the two of them had been ongoing for more than a couple of days, even Theisio was troubled over this. The experiments from the Supreme Court were of extremely evil nature and clearly did not fit the doctrine. It was a Holy War now. As long as the enemies could be destroyed, then it would be allowed by the Gods.

The Oracles were strategizing on how to build a Holy Kingdom army. This was equivalent to an attempt to undermine the Sacred Knights, and not allowing the Pope to control everything. Such an act was even more despicable than the Supreme Court.

At this point, Theisio said, “Okay, the Black Dungeon may be opened. Lucashenko, I will announce God’s Order. You can pick and choose whatever powers you need for the Supreme Court to go alongside the Sacred Knights and attack Loulan. Within half a year, Loulan needs to be fully under control. By autumn next year, I want the situation to be stabilized.”

“Second Oracle, the First Oracle is not around, so you can hold on for the time being with regards to the construction of the Holy Kingdom army. The number of Holy Masters gathered for the expedition is insufficient and we still need to utilize the Ascetics. By spring next year, we will launch an attack against Laiyin Duchy. Do you have an opinion?”

The Second Oracle spoke, “Lord Pope, the Ascetics have always been under the Oracles’ control. Their strength does not lie in expedition battles.”

“This is God’s will!” Theisio said with rage.

“God’s will?” The Second Oracle smiled before shutting his mouth.

Theisio calmed himself down before saying, “With regards to the Holy Kingdom, the Pivotal Council will consider it again once the First Oracle returns.”

There was nothing that the Second Oracle could do. Fycro was not around and the Pope was using the status and position of the five powerful Cardinals against him. Only Fycro had the ability to stand against the Pivotal Council. As for the rest of the Oracles, their powers were more or less the same as a Cardinal. For this internal strife, the abilities gifted by the Lord of Glory could not be used. Based on this fact alone, the Supreme Court had the upper hand. Those lunatics would resort to using even heresy powers to eliminate others.

The Pope’s promise was vague, but Fycro was not around so there was nothing that the Second Oracle could do. He might appear strong, but ultimately just wanted to make sure he did not lose out on any gains to be had.

“The Cardinals have constructed twelve legions of knights at full strength. Each legion will require one-hundred Ascetics. Second Oracle, will you be able to settle this?” Theisio asked, as if there was room for discussion.

“Y-yes, I can.” The Second Oracle had wanted to say that they needed some time to discuss amongst themselves. Doing so would reduce his standing amongst the other Oracles. Fycro was not around so he had to make the decision. Twelve-thousand Ascetics was still a manageable figure.

There were one-thousand to three-thousand Ascetics under the command of every Oracle. After the unlucky Genesis died, the new Oracle that took over would never disobey his order. Each Oracle would contribute fifty Ascetics and the Sixth Oracle would be deployed to lead them. Then there would be no need to argue further with Theisio.

“Very well. Since that is settled, we can now begin to discuss the movement of the troops,” Theisio breathed a sigh of relief after the Second Oracle agreed. The Holy See’s twelve legions of Sacred Knights constituted the main force, but without Holy Masters, they would be easy targets for high-level mages. The Pivotal Council were not lacking of Holy Masters, but they were all the forces that the Council had. If all of them were to join the army, the Holy City would be defenceless.

With the heritage that belonged to the Holy See today, where a religion could stand against a mighty kingdom, they would not be so foolish as to give in to internal conflicts and disputes. Theisio exerted a bit of pressure and the Second Oracle relented, so he also took a step back in turn, and things did not turn ugly between the two parties.

Unless the three big kingdoms collapsed and the Holy See could gain control of Myers Mainland, then Oracles would have strived to break apart on their own. The construction of the Holy Kingdom was Fycro’s idea. He wanted a kingdom similar to heaven to be built on the Myers Mainland, so that even those who were not able to go to heaven could have a chance to enjoy the greatest honor a disciple deserved.

The meeting in Nico Cathedral continued for a full day and night, many of God’s orders were passed down. With the holy city as the core, countless troops began to move and gather on the plains.

At this very moment, a young man dressed in a white robe arrived just outside of Metatrin City. He was fit and fair-skinned, with soft facial features and a pair of black eyes. His hair was of shoulder length and was let down. This young man who seemed harmless and powerless was actually the secretive First Oracle of the Holy See; Fycro.

He raised his head and peered at the towering city walls. He snickered at the sight of skeleton soldiers patrolling the walls.

“Heresies, and to even think of building a city that can stand for eternity. Dante’s Sequence? What a talented guy. Looks like he does have the capability to work with me.” Fycro muttered to himself. This strange young man who was peering into the city in the cold and snowy weather had long been sighted. A small group of Caucasus soldiers on magic wolves soon came riding to him.

“Who are you?!” The leader of the Caucasus soldiers bellowed in the Common Language. He held a sword and approached Fycro with caution.

“I am a merchant dealing with weapons, and am also a mage,” Fycro smiled and pointed at the two rows of magic symbols on his white robe. These were symbols of a grade-2 mage.

“Mister mage, you…”

“I am a friend of Master Saleen. He has invited me here to discuss weapons with him,” Fycro lied easily. The Caucasus soldier was cautious and asked, “Do you have any tokens of proof?”

Fycro casually took out a badge and passed it to the Caucasus soldier. Obviously the soldier did not recognize it and said, “Master Saleen is not around. You can follow me into the city. I will have to check the authenticity of the badge.”

Fycro did not mind and gestured for them to proceed. This badge was the symbol of a major Sikenqinyan company that was secretly funded by the Holy See, so there was no way anyone would be able to find any issues with it.

With Fycro’s status, forging an identity was just too easy.

He followed the Caucasus soldier and entered the town hall. Coincidentally, both Aini and Irene were at the town hall when the badge was sent for inspection. They did not find any problems with it and so, Fycro was arranged to stay at an inn designated for the workers of the town hall where he would await Saleen’s return.

In the past few months, many people had come looking for Saleen, so Fycro’s arrival did not seem out of place. Even Aini was not be able to expose his real identity and powers.

The town hall was lacking in manpower and no one was available to accompany Fycro, so he eventually ended up wandering around in the city. Since his identity was a grade-2 mage, Daniel did not pay him too much attention. After sending someone to observe him for some time, Daniel eventually let him be.