Badge in Azure

“Teacher, I lost the divine puppet too.” Van Gogh dared not hide such a fact from his teacher. After all, he was the only person he trusted on the entire island. If he lied to his teacher, there would be no one else on Black Dungeon Island who even wanted to help him.

“The divine puppet!” The black-robed elder hardly even flinched when he heard that Van Gogh had lost the lance.

After all, the Lance of Order was a godly item, but the divine puppet that was currently in Van Gogh’s hand was the only piece of equipment that had been successfully crafted through divine smithing in the entire Black Dungeon Island! It had been created by using the highest grade materials, which had been acquired from the ruins of the First Dynasty.

There had not been a lot of research done on the puppet, as it was deemed more important to chase after the Eye of the Storm. It was for this reason that the Black Dungeon had let Van Gogh held onto it in the first place. However, they never would have expected for someone who wielded the Lance of Order and had brought 12 powerful holy masters with him to have lost the divine puppet!

That would have been impossible to imagine! After all, the divine puppet had summoned creature attributes that accompanied it wherever it went. As such, one could have recalled it, even if it had ended up being controlled by the enemy.

“Teacher, I’m afraid that even the head warden wouldn’t be able to let me off the hook after this. After all, that divine puppet was a research subject that was funded by the Tribunal!” Van Gogh said fearfully.

“Then… What do you plan on doing?” The black-robed elder acknowledged Van Gogh’s judgment, then asked about his next move.

While Black Dungeon was an independent institution, Van Gogh’s mistakes were severe enough to cost him his position as successor to the head warden. Even if he was spared for the moment, Van Gogh’s future would be a grim one.

The Tribunal had too many ways to making Van Gogh a walking dead man. They would have been able to make him continue to serve the Tribunal without needing to kill him, thus still being able to punish him in the most extremely brutal ways possible.

“Teacher, I want that piece of equipment. Then… I’ll leave,” Van Gogh said.

“Leave?” the black-robed elder asked, surprised by his words.

“Yes, teacher. I don’t think I’m fit for Black Dungeon. Even if became a head warden in the future, I wouldn’t have been able to go that far. After all, the Holy See wants to see all of the empires on the mainland destroyed.” Van Gogh shook his head, then said, “I simply don’t know what the future holds.”

Att the moment, Van Gogh felt rather ashamed of himself.

“But, where else can you go?” the black-robed elder asked.

“Alchemy City. With that piece of equipment, I can disguise myself as a mage,” Van Gogh replied.

“You’ll fall, son…” the black-robed elder said, clearly worried about him.

“So what? Teacher, I’ve met a level nine fallen holy master. He was special, as he was able to affect me,” Van Gogh said.

“You’ve made up your mind then?” The black-robed elder looked somewhat disappointed, yet also a little excited.

These two eerie expressions changed from one to another repeatedly on his face. He was disappointed that his student was about to fall, which meant that he was about to lose his only successor. This meant that he would be all alone once again in Black Dungeon.

On the other hand, he was excited to see if Van Gogh was able to avoid the soul corrosion after falling, thus continuing to advance. If so, it would have been something worthy of all of the research indeed! He even went on to capture some holy masters to be used for experiments for that very purpose, in order to find ways to make fallen holy masters become more powerful, while suffering no ill effects.

From the Tribunal’s standpoint, this was not something blasphemous, as conflicts happened among the gods as well. In the conquest of heaven, they might have been required to fight believers of other gods. If they were able to find out ways to have these types of believers fall, the holy masters that were experimented on would have been considered offerings to the Lord of Glory.

“I can give you that piece of equipment, but first, I need to perform an experiment.” Van Gogh knelt on the floor and kowtowed to his teacher.

This was usually a gesture of respect that was reserved for their god. Hence, such a blasphemous things would have only been done by someone like Van Gogh, who was already ready to fall.

The very reason he had risked his neck in returning to Black Dungeon was to get that piece of equipment that his teacher kept in secret. It was something that had been obtained by excavating some ruins of the First Dynasty by the previous generations of Black Dungeon elders.

Many of these elders had taken many of these things from the ruins for their own use. What his teacher had kept was something that not even the elders knew about. That was the very reason why Van Gogh had dared to ask for it. He knew that it would not drag his teacher into his mess.

At that moment, the black-robed elder stood up and opened the furnace, then turned to Van Gogh and said, “Get in.”

“Get in?” Van Gogh exclaimed in surprise.

“Yes. Put on your armor and get in. I will then craft your armor and your body with divine light. When you fall, most of the punishment will then be taken on by the armor. Otherwise… For someone who has received so many blessings, it would be incredibly lucky for you if you just die on the spot,” the elder said.

Van Gogh gritted his teeth and jumped into the furnace. After all, he trusted his teacher. Even if his teacher wanted to do him ill, he saw no choice but to accept his fate.

Despite everything, at this moment, Van Gogh felt that he was very fortunate, as he knew of no one else on the entire Black Dungeon Island who had someone they were able to put their trust in like he did. If he were to end up being killed at his teacher’s hands, it would be the same as being killed by someone else. But… If he was saved by his teacher…

As Van Gogh recalled that grey-haired fallen holy master, hope welled up in his heart. People always hoped to live a good life, and there was very little that someone else would have been able to do if they were in his same position. However, Van Gogh would never give up.

He had planned on turning his back ever since the very first time he received the god’s blessing. It was just that the day had come too suddenly, and he found himself unable to accept it.

At that moment, a divine light blasted within that huge metal furnace. As the light was reflected by the crystals, it ricocheted off of the walls and hit another spot.

Van Gogh sat in the middle of the furnace and let the divine light penetrate his body. The armor was entirely incapable of preventing this refining process of the divine light.

Van Gogh was able to withstand the pain in the beginning, but when the silver armor became completely fused with his body, the pain reached became too much to bear. The pain was so intense that Van Gogh wanted to tear the armor away from his body, but quickly found himself no longer able to control his body!

He wanted to call out to his teacher for help, yet the black-robed elder simply continued to place one holy prose after another into the furnace. The original equipment that had been sitting in the furnace was left inside of it, having already been fused together with Van Gogh’s body.

A mage’s human body alchemy was apparently very different from what that black-robed elder was practicing at the moment. Even Imposa did not have such daunting abilities! Imposa was, after all, just a level nine sorcerer, while the black-robed elder was capable of borrowing the power of the gods while he was using the furnace.

By this point, Van Gogh had stopped thinking of his body as being his own, but the pain he felt deep within his soul was not something that he was able to withstand. Countless holy prose within his body were being refined, and all of the blessings that he had received turned into the very root of his pain.

The black-robed elder patiently went about crafting his student, as he needed to force out every single mark of their god from Van Gogh’s body, while fusing them with the silver armor. As the silver armor was first fused with his body, this act was not seen as falling. Instead, it was simply thought of as a clever trick.

When Van Gogh truly fell, which was the moment that his betrayal became known by his god, the greatest punishment that he would face would be taken on by the armor. Only the black-robed elder’s divine smithing abilities were capable of accomplishing such a feat.

The furnace itself was a godly item, and furthermore, it was one that was crafted by another god before it was taken away by the Lord of Glory and bestowed upon a believer on Myers Mainland. Myers Mainland was the center of many planes, and due to this position, it was the most important.

The Lord of Glory spread his faith in secret after all of the gods had fallen, and he had put a lot of effort into doing so. If it was in the past, he would have never even thought about getting such a place for himself.

Both the teacher and the student knew how terrifying the divine punishments of the gods were. As such, Van Gogh did not doubt, but simply let his teacher clear the divine blessings in his body.

What can I do about the pain anyway? Van Gogh thought to himself. After all, he was trapped in the furnace, and even if he wanted to leave, he would have needed to have the Lance of Order with him in order to do so.

At that moment, hundreds of black-armored troops that were led by a black-robed priest, arrived outside the compound and blocked the door. The black-robed priest hesitated for a bit before asking at the door, “Master Carlo, has Van Gogh shown up here?”

“No,” the black-robed elder answered, without stopping what he was doing. Instead, he actually sped up the process.

After the priest took a good look at the crystal chip in his hand, he thought… It seems that Master Carlo isn’t lying.

He then peered into the compound restlessly, while a sliver of golden light burst in that crystal that was hanging in the air. The light then shot directly into his eye.

The black-robed priest yelled out in pain as his left eye burst. At the same time, the troops behind him tensed up and drew their weapons, getting ready to storm the compound.

The black-robed priest was startled and angered. He had been blinded for simply taking a look! He seethed inwardly as he thought… I’m still an adjudicator from the Tribunal! Can’t that old man even give me a little respect?

“Carlo, how dare you…” The priest had no intentions of stopping his subordinates.

He could not believe that an old man from Black Dungeon would dare to kill an army from the Tribunal. The Tribunal had stationed troops on Black Dungeon Island at the moment in order to prepare for a conquest at sea. The priest thought… If Carlo isn’t going to play nice, the head warden won’t do anything to cover his a**!

A golden light burst out from within that injured eye before the priest was able to finish his sentence. Then, with a violent bursting sound, the priest’s brain turned into a mist of blood and flesh.

Carlo did not care where the priest came from. On Black Dungeon Island, his compound was the one place that absolutely no one was allowed to enter. Even the head warden would have had to wait outside.

The black-robed priest did not know what he was getting into, and he had ended up dead because of it. The black-armored troops under his command were furious. At that moment, the leader of the troops rushed into the compound, followed by hundreds of others.

Carlo then sighed and yelled, “My god, purification!”

“Stop it!” An angry voice shouted from afar, while a heavily armored warrior carrying a halberd rushed to the scene, followed closely by 20 other black-robed priests.

The crystal hanging above the compound burst with gentle light. Threads of gold were laced in that white light, and when the light shone onto the bodies of the black-armored troops, they disintegrated one after another and blood poured everywhere.

The small compound was only able to fit a little more than 100, yet had over 300 rushing in at the moment. Therefore, all of them were quickly killed off by Purification.

As they died, their blood sprayed everywhere and fell all over the ground before being soaked up by the plants. Those dead soldiers’ bodies were then swallowed by a giant hole that had suddenly appeared in the ground.

The peaceful-looking compound had numerous hidden traps within it, and as Carlo was the most powerful divine smith on the entire Black Dungeon Island, there was no way that his residence would not have proper defenses. When the heavily armored warrior arrived outside the compound, all of the soldiers from the troops within it were dead. Not even their bodies remained.

Upon seeing this, he furiously pushed his visor up and yelled at the compound, “Carlo, how dare you kill my men from the Tribunal?”

“I dared to do so without regret, and now… I’m telling you to get lost!” Carlo’s harsh reply made the face of the warrior twist in fury.

“Alright then, I’ll leave. You just sit here and wait for the head inquisitor to hand you your punishment!” the armored warrior yelled.

“Punishment?” Carlo snickered, then said, “If you won’t show me any respect, then I’ll just have you stay behind!”