Badge in Azure

Lex’s attitude rendered everyone around her dumbfounded. Jason spoke softly on the other side of the sound transmission magic array, “Lex, this is Jason. I’m here now at Metatrin City.”

Lex was so taken aback that she appeared stunned for a brief moment. It was not until a mage beside her let out a slight cough, that Lex recomposed herself and said to the array, “Acknowledged, teacher…”

“If there is nothing else over there, get here as soon as possible,” Jason shut off the array as he finished and turned to Nicholas, “You lot go get some rest. I have people attending to me here. You are grade-9, go do something else instead.”

Jason was so composed that he sounded rather condescending, but still, Nicholas was unable to harbor any resentment in the matter.

Nicholas had been busy dealing with the case of someone out there setting Daniel up, so he had been spending most of his time outside. Jason did not require his company. He needed to return soon, as there were even more people to deal with that time. Among all those who worked against Daniel, there was an earl who had just had his title conferred by Saleen.

Nicholas was unable to simply move against him unless there was indisputable evidence. The circle of nobles that Saleen had labored to create that far would be fractured.

In general, the Holy See would take a myriad of measures, depending on the nature of the case when something like that happened. The tribunal would apprehend the ones responsible and tortured them. The pivotal council would collect evidence discreetly, which would include framing their targets should they find them to be actual culprits as last resorts, just so that they could apprehend those people. The oracles’ modus operandi was even simpler. They would simply kill their targets. When they were done with killing, they would have gone to pray at the church.

Of the options of methods laid before him, only the methods of the pivotal council seemed agreeable. Nicholas still needed to confirm the identity of the culprit before he was able to make a move. Planting incriminating evidence haphazardly would have simply alerted Saleen.

Nicholas and Daniel continued dealing with all the dirty work, finding ways to clear all the filth thrown at Daniel. Jason, on the other hand, arranged for the mages’ respite and assigning rooms to them, as well as servants who were to attend to the mages.

Jason did not rest in this room. He instead explored the temple with two white-robed mages. They inspected every single room, including Saleen’s chambers, as well as the alchemy rooms. Jason eventually found the teleportation portal and the coordinates where Saleen entered the underground warehouse.

Jason smiled. The hints to the coordinates were only known to him and Saleen. No one else who was not of their lineage would have known. Jason only found out that Saleen had been building a huge warehouse that was more than a thousand yards deep in the ground when he went there.

The magic that Saleen used was apparent to Jason. Jason collected the magic tower materials that Saleen left behind one by one. “Well, Saleen is one careful kid indeed. He didn’t build these towers before I showed up just to make sure that it wouldn’t alert the outsiders.”

Jason was satisfied as Saleen did not waste any materials given to him. The amount of the materials was enough to build thirty-six magic towers. Jason had only taken out the map of the city handed to him and researched it for a bit in the warehouse. He found that Saleen had been doing a perfect job. In regard to the city walls, there was nothing Jason was able to single out for criticism.

If he were to build thirty-six magic towers in the city, it would make Metatrin City something like Holy Rock City. With such numbers of magic towers in place and city walls built in accordance to Dante’s Sequence, there would hardly be anyone who would be able to simply fly into the city. Anyone intending to invade the city would have had to resort to good old wall-climbing.

It would have been even better if there was a set of magic amplifiers in place. Alchemy City had it and Holy Rock City had it. Both those cities were rendered impossible to take simply because there was such a device in place.

The time was August. Jason’s arrival made the citizens of Metatrin City very, very happy. There would no longer be worries about others coming to wreck their businesses with so many sorcerers staying inside.

Jason gave the order to have mages build magic towers on plots of land that Saleen left behind. The construction of all thirty-six towers began at the same time, as Jason had prepared ample materials for doing so. All materials, no matter how particular the requirements were, had been crafted according to said requirements.

There was not even the problem of laying foundations to consider, as Saleen had laid them. Only the towers needed to be built.

All the towers that Jason was building were nine-floored towers. He had little idea of the actual size of the Six Elements’ Space, but he knew that the space could have at least fit six people, being the smallest size there was. Even so, that little space could enable the mages of Sregl Island to enhance all of their powers.

Thirty-six towers were erected inside the city within the span of half a month. That piece of news seemed to have wings of its own, spreading to all corners of the Myers Mainland. It spread to the Glorious Plains, Holy City, everywhere…

Theisio read the intelligence gathered by his followers in his hand with a cold expression. An inextinguishable rage was burning inside him. He had been set up. He put too much focus on Daliang City. Although he had made an offensive and defensive alliance with Cloudflow, he had neglected the Kingdom of Metatrin.

“I never thought that infidel had such powers behind him. That was what my intuition had been telling me all along.”

Sending in an expeditionary force of one-hundred-thousand men, even sending in every single soldier the Tanggulasian army had at the borders of Kroraina, would no longer be enough to take down Metatrin City.

“Leaving such a great scourge behind to come biting back at me; I have really been careless!”

“Tell the emperor to agree to the conditions of the Sikenqinyans and have them deploy their forces. We won’t be able to do anything otherwise,” Theisio said to his red-robed holy master follower in a tired voice. His white beard was a mess.

The high priest bowed and left. Theisio activated the rune array on his table and gave an order in a whisper.

There was a sealed room underneath the church, devoid of doors or windows. There was only a small square hole enabling meals to be sent within. That cage’s design spoke of immeasurable cruelty, and it was located right beneath Theisio’s church. On paper, only the tribunal would have had such a place built.

There was a person dressed in short gray robes inside the prison, facing the wall and carving into it incessantly with their fingers. The wall of green stone had streak after streak on it from his nails. There was dust left on the floor resulting from such activities.

The prisoner was barefoot and had hair strewn about his face, but his face and hands were clean. The toilet in the corner of the room did not give off any unpleasant odor. The prisoner also had pure eyes which looked rather similar to Fycro’s: humble yet adamant.

Theisio’s voice was heard as he wrote on the wall, “Don, get to Daliang and bring Lex back.”

The prisoner gave an answer to the wall with a smile, “No.”

“I can absolve you of your sins,” while the voice of the pope was still quiet, it was noticeably higher in tone than before.

“My sins are not something that can be forgiven,” Don said in a serious manner.

Theisio kept quiet for a moment and continued, “I’m willing to make a request to the head inquisitor of the tribunal… to have your daughter released.”

Don’s finger snapped with a crack. The divine spell had lasted for only a minute, and as such, his finger was no longer able to work against the green stone wall. The prisoner had been putting too much strength in his finger, and his finger had bent in an awkward angle. Don stared blankly at his broken finger, while Theisio continued, “I can give your daughter a replacement body, enabling her to start over.”

Don took hold of his broken finger and bent it straight, enabling it to return to its previous form and functionality. He continued drawing runes that no one could have understood on the wall.

“Haven’t you thought of returning to where you once were?”, Theisio began to sound impatient.

“Not at all. I fought for you once, and I wasn’t able to keep my daughter safe. Theisio, you have plenty who are loyal to you. Why me?”

“That is because I had someone summon an angel, and yet I failed,” Theisio spoke.

“The heavenly angel…was but a shell. Theisio, if you want me out there, you need to agree to three conditions of mine.”

“Speak.”

“First of all, I want my daughter’s memory erased, and her to be fitted into a new body like you said.”

“No problem.”

“Second, anyone who laid their hands on my daughter, I want their families, every single one of them, dead.”

“…Done.”

“Third, I want control of the pivotal council.”

“Don, have you lost your mind?”

“If you are unwilling to agree to those terms, then don’t bother asking anymore,” Don swiped at the wall with his hand. The dust on the ground flew up and went to fill in the streaks on the wall. The end result looked as if he had never done anything to it. If the prisoner had wanted to leave the place, there was no one who could have stopped him.

“You, taking control of the pivotal council? Impossible!”, Theisio’s voice trembled.

“Why not? Didn’t you say yourself, that you can absolve me of my sins? If I were to be rendered sinless, with my status and identity, taking control of the pivotal council would be child’s play. Hell, if I wanted to become pope, do you think you would have been able to stop me?”

Theisio was completely silenced. He had not expected such an answer from the prisoner.

Theisio spoke after a brief moment, “I don’t understand. If you have the ambition, why not fight for what you want yourself?”

“That is because I don’t care for any of that. Seeing you people fighting for something like that felt like watching a bunch of dogs fighting over shit. The longer you fight among yourselves, the colder that pile of waste gets.”

The pope was a well-mannered man, yet he felt like he was about to explode. He suppressed his urge to lash out nonetheless. He had no surety of being able to kill the prisoner, who had willingly been locked up.

Don continued, “Now, I feel like I’m covering myself in shit, or putting some on top of my head. Many would have envied my position, and I will get to see all those ugly faces. When Judgment Day comes, I will send all those despicable vermin to hell with my own hands.”

“The gods would not have tolerated your arrogance,” Theisio said as he clamped down on his rage.

“I’m still cleaner than those from the pivotal council. If they can enter heaven, why would I need to worry? So Theisio, I take it that you have agreed to my terms?”

“Yes, I have indeed!”

“Well then. Tell me about the target. Do you want them dead or alive?”

“Alive,” Theisio said. A projected image of the target showed up in the prison. The image looked alive. The image looked like Lex.