Why Did You Summon Me?

The youth seemed to be a cleric, reciting litany after litany as he led the mass. The prayers he recited were just as bad as his ancient Rohlserlese, which he spoke with a heavy accent. The composition of these prayers was haphazard, unlike the poetic prayers that the Church of the future made to strengthen the faith of its followers.

Anyone could tell that the youth was a foreigner, who had a low education level and was new to this religion business. Baiyi could tell that the hovering angel was the reason why the youth had the townfolks’ attention. The angel’s presence was enough to make them believe whatever the youth said.

There was a bit more to the youth, though. Baiyi could sense Holy Power swirling within the boy. The Holy Power was untainted, and its source was divine in nature, unlike the Holy Power that emanated from regular mystics and paladins. This Holy Power was similar to that of the Law Marionette that Baiyi fought years ago. However, the boy’s Holy Power was gentler in comparison.

Baiyi could tell that the young cleric’s Holy Power was not his own. It came from an external source that the young cleric had no control over. This was akin to a caveman using an iPhone.

“I will have to use my psychic sense if I want to get a better look, so you’ll have to take over the camouflage magic,” Baiyi whispered to Mia.

“Okay. But, are you sure doing that won’t reveal yourself?” Mia asked with worry.

“Nah; I doubt it, but I will be careful. That pipsqueak is young and looks inexperienced, while his angel is dumb. I’m pretty sure they won’t notice me snooping around,” Baiyi replied confidently.

“Um, okay.” Mia nodded. She wondered if she could correct Baiyi, as she did not think Lulu was dumb. In fact, Mia considered Lulu to be very clever.

Baiyi reduced the area of effect of the camouflage magic until it covered only Mia. He let Mia hover and began to descend. As Baiyi flew down, he employed the stealth tactics of the Hitman Walker and the Assassin Walker. As his psychic sense flowed towards the angel and the young cleric, Baiyi puffed his chest out with pride. Minimizing the area of the masking magic to cover Mia only, Baiyi left her in the air and descended a few altitudes lower while employing his stealthy coworkers’ tactics. As he extended his psychic senses towards the two targets, his chest puffed in pride and self-satisfaction. These two hermits must not have ever seen a sorcerer whose stealth capabilities rivaled that of a professional hitman, and Baiyi was about to show them how stealth was used in the future!

The instant Baiyi’s psychic sense reached the angel, who had been motionless all this while, it raised its head, looking, through its blindfold, straight at the camouflaged Baiyi.

Even the young cleric stopped talking and looked up. Fortunately for him, he had moved from his previous spot, so he did not see up a certain someone’s skirt; if he had, Baiyi would have crippled him, leaving him capable of participating only in the Paralympics.

The angel and the young cleric could see nothing but the clear blue sky, no matter how thoroughly they scanned the area. Baiyi was nowhere in sight. The angel cocked her head to the side in confusion, but after a while, she looked down and became motionless again. The young cleric, who had also seen nothing, lowered his head and continued to recite his cringeworthy litanies.

Although Baiyi was only a Soul Armature, he could feel beads of cold sweat trickling down his spine. He had not expected the perception of those two to be that high. If he had not retracted his psychic sense instantly, he would have been made.

“Alright, so you guys have some freakishly good senses. Allow me to show you my other cards,” Baiyi murmured, landing atop an undamaged rooftop nearby.

He drew a rune of one of the roof’s tiles, but he did not infuse mana into it. Whilst still under the influence of the cloaking spell, Baiyi leaped to another rooftop, and then another, drawing runes on them just as he had done on the first rooftop.

Moments later, Baiyi had drawn runes on all rooftops around the square. Then, his mana slowly trickled into every rune in the area, as he wanted to activate them without drawing any attention to himself.

When all the runes were activated, a territory that greatly boosted Baiyi’s perception would encompass the square, allowing him to sense everything within it without using his psychic sense. This technique was one of Da Xue’s latest inventions for espionage. The territory was so difficult to detect, even Lady Assassin Walker had great difficulty telling when it was in use. In the future, this was possibly the best technique for snooping around. No one had any use for it within Da Xue, though.

However, it was the perfect solution to Baiyi’s current problem.

Just as Baiyi had expected, the mana trickling into the runes were so minute, neither the angel nor the young cleric noticed. Baiyi was pleased as he waited for the territory to fully form, and when it did, he would learn everything there was to know about this angel’s powers!

His hopes were soon dashed. The first four runes activated without incident, but when the fifth rune began to activate, the angel became alert. She quickly looked up at a rooftop, visibly wary.

The young cleric seemed to understand. “Intruder alert! Intruder alert!” He hollered at the townfolks, but he quickly corrected himself. “I mean, something bad has occurred. Today’s mass will end here; you must all return to your homes and hide there!”

The crowd looked confused. They turned to the angel for clarification, but instead of replying, she spread her wings of light, and a sea of sparks tore through the air like a sandstorm.

Baiyi did not react quickly, so a few sparks landed on him. Although the sparks were almost unnoticeable by the naked eye, the blindfolded angel was able to instantly pinpoint Baiyi’s location.

“Something is hiding over there! Everyone must go now!” The young cleric called out, pointing at an empty rooftop.

The townsfolk got up and left the square in groups, and a minute later, only the angel and young cleric remained in the town square. The angel floated closer to the ground, and chains made of light materialized around her. The chains wrapped around each other and formed a golden claymore.

The angel’s expression hardened, but she did not look away from Baiyi, even once.

“Show yourself! Are you a Rohlserlian sorcerer?” The young sorcerer shouted coldly, doing his best to spot Baiyi.

“Urgh. This is just embarrassing.” Baiyi sighed before revealing himself.

The young cleric took one look at armor, and his gaze turned into one of hatred. It was as though he was looking at the man that killed his father. That expression disappeared a second later. The young cleric’s still looked angry, but it was nothing compared to his previous disposition. “You are a sorcerer respected by many people; why did you hide as you snuck around us, making a strange formation? Are you going to be my enemy?”

‘My, my. We just met, and you already consider me an enemy?’ Baiyi thought as he held back a chuckle. It seemed the youth harbored a grudge against Rohlserlian sorcerers. If not, he would not have so quickly considered the sorcerer before him an enemy.

If Baiyi wished it, the boy would be nothing but a pile of ash right now. When his attention turned to the angel, who was still staring fixedly at him, he decided to be civil. “Maybe, you should start by explaining why you are on my land without my permission, harassing my people as you wish,” Baiyi said.

“You are complacent and a fool, Rohlserlian. Use those eyes of yours to marvel at the immaculate hovering behind me! Wherever there is light, there the One True God will preside. Everyone under that light is loved by my Lord. They were never your property, Rohlserlian. No, they are the Lord’s most faithful followers!” The young cleric exclaimed spiritedly. “Without us, this poor town would have been defiled by wicked fiends. Our cleansing presence brought light and hope to these people!”

The speech was a grand one, but Baiyi was not impressed. He was even trying to hold back his laughter. “Hold up, wannabe priest. When did you become so good with words? Who taught you to say that, huh?” Baiyi taunted.

The young cleric’s face became unsightly. “Your words do not matter. Go away, and holy Lady Angel will not punish you for this harassment. Go!” He growled.

“Oh, yeah? How about this: I’ll give you guys a chance to surrender, tell me who you are and what you plan to do, and after my investigation, I will allow the two of you to leave. That sounds better, right?” Baiyi smiled.

“You are filled with impudence!” The young cleric snapped. He dipped his hand into his robe and produced a slingshot. The young cleric notched a pebble onto it and fired at Baiyi.

This was no different from a petulant child trying to break a neighbor’s tempered glass window with a pebble. Baiyi almost burst into laughter, but he was able to hold himself back. A thought had crossed his mind earlier.

Baiyi leisurely caught the pebble with two fingers and asked, “Your name is Yula. Isn’t it, little Mornserian?”

The young cleric froze. “How do you know my name?”

When Baiyi did not reply, the young boy became angry again, yelling, “But, I am not from Mornseria!”

Baiyi smirked. “K.”

Throughout history, only one person was said to have used a slingshot as his main weapon. This person was the first Apostle of God’s Grace, Yula. According to the Church, Yula was the first person to walk the earth to spread the message of the One True God. In the end, he was rewarded with a seat by his god’s side and ascended to heaven.

During his missionary work, Yula did not carry any lethal weapons with him. All he had was a slingshot, which he used for self-defense. He never wanted to kill people; all he wanted was to teach them the ‘truth’ so that they would willingly follow him. It was said whenever the slingshot was fired, the target would not get hurt; instead, their negative emotions and killing intent would be nullified.

In the future, the Church had Apostle Yula on many murals. He was drawn holding a slingshot. However, in all those murals, Yula was a kindly old sage, not a snot-nosed pipsqueak!