Badge in Azure

Isabella felt a gush of heat in her head as some form of power was injected into her. She slumped forward shortly after.

“Keep your mental powers under control, then you can think about controlling your sword aura. Hehe, I see that you are able to practice both magic and sword aura at the same time. No small feat indeed, kid,” Don’s gentle smile turned into a smirk, angering Isabella further. If she had known that he saw through her so easily, she would have simply went full force instead of holding herself back.

“You can rest easy now, Isabella. See, I didn’t bother torturing you. Hell, I didn’t even bother stripping you of your gear. I just wanted to talk. You won’t get another chance at this.”

Isabella’s eyes went to the back of her head, and she spoke in anguish, “I will just be honest with you. I’m a follower of Lord Saleen. I have signed a contract with him. If you want me to do anything to betray him…you best not even try.”

“A follower? Well, that will prove troublesome, but no matter, Saleen…is Lex’s man. So if I ask for your help to take Lex, I would assume that you would say no?”

“That is a given. Kill me if you want. You are not making me do something like that,” Isabella was indeed a stubborn one. Despite knowing full well that people from the Holy See had all sorts of ways to take her down, she refused outright to yield to the heavenly knight.

Isabella was, after all, a mage. Mages did not negotiate with the Holy See.

“Well then, if I were to ask for your help to save Lex, what would you say?”

“Save her?”

“Indeed. Lex is in danger. Someone is plotting to take her head, and she knows nothing of it. The assassin in question might be capable of much, but the assassination methods involved, are definitely not something that would come to her mind. Only I, the person who was once the commander of the heavenly knights, will be able to save her. Isabella, do you believe what I’m telling you here?”

“No.”

“Well…,” Don rubbed his hands for a moment. The scraping sounds from the rubbing of metal gloves was hard on the ears. His golden armor glittered under the scorching sun, and Isabella felt like she was sitting right beside the sun. She felt the scorch intensely, which got her sweating. The sweat was in turn, evaporated by the scorching heat.

“Well, you wouldn’t have been much help actually, Isabella. Do you want to get away from this?” Don changed his tone, which sounded sincere instead.

“I think so.”

“I had trouble with acquiring magic chords from my practice. Magic chords and divine spells are incompatible after all. I see you are able to acquire both magic chords and sword aura. You must have something about you that is special since you are able to do so. Tell me how you did it, and I will just let you go.”

“Swear on it,” Isabella replied without second thoughts.

While the ability to practice both magic and sword aura was no small feat, it did not allow her to be among the top practitioners of the world. Any art would have required the practitioner in question to devote all of their being into it if they were to aim for heights beyond comprehension. In the end, she would have still needed to cast one of her arts aside. She would eventually need to devote herself to the practice of sword aura, or becoming a full time mage.

The advantage of practicing both arts was that it enabled Isabella’s experiences, combat capacity, and understanding of the world to surpass most common mages’. Sword aura was also another form of energy, just like elements.

“Alright, I, Don Scripture Iplass, hereby swear in the name god, that I will release Isabella, if she will teach me the way to practice both magic and sword aura at the same time. I will not lay a finger on her, for the next one-hundred years to come.”

Officials in charge of matters in Daliang City sent word to Metatrin City as soon as they heard about Isabella’s kidnapping. To have a grade-7 sorcerer, and furthermore, a follower of Lord Saleen, captured, was very dire news!

Lex felt troubled as soon as the news reached Metatrin City. Saleen’s follower was captured and the news was delivered by the ones who were there to witness the entire process. That one who took Isabella obviously thought she was Lex herself.

“No one other than mages of Sregl Island knows that I became a grade-9 sorcerer. Capturing me indeed, eh?” Lex touched the God’s ring at her finger and smirked.

There were now twelve grade-9 sorcerers in Metatrin City. Another six would arrived with another month, and that was not counting both her and Jason who had advanced.

Being surrounded by such figures of great power, no one would have been able to take her away from the temple, so long as said figures of great power were not dispersed, and she herself was not leaving Metatrin City on her own.

The illustration of the culprit was recorded by mages and made into magic images. Lex knew right away what the golden armor he wore meant. Every single plate had divine runes carved into it. Such armor would have been worn by none other than members of the heavenly knights.

“The Holy See wanted to take me alive now? Well, I wonder why Bain never acted any sooner. It has been more than a year, and Bain’s underlings should have infiltrated the Tanggulasi Empire by now. They should even have escape routes plotted.”

“My liege!”, a white-robed mage busted into Lex’s quarters in a hurry. It was the office where Lex handled matters in Saleen’s place. Having one such mage barging in meant that there would have been warriors getting in their way.

“Urgent news!”, the white-robed mage held up a magic paper. The warrior drew their sword, plunging it into the mage’s chest a split second later. The white-robed mage was shocked, dropping the magic paper onto the floor, which revealed a short, thin blade concealed within. They were dumbfounded as to why Lex’s guard would have acted against them without any hesitation, and entirely without mercy.

Lex’s pupils contracted quite a bit. The warrior was assigned by Saleen. Everything in the temple was arranged by him, yet the white-robed mage who had been killed, had just joined their ranks.

The awkward assassination attempt ended before it began.

The warrior who had just killed the mage waved their hand. Someone came up immediately to take the mage’s dead body away.

“My liege, it is not proper to handle your affairs here, as there will always be people who are up to no good. Even if such urgent news was sent by the Lord of Glory, no one should have just barged in like that. I would like to ask for your understanding, for killing a mage without trial,” the warrior said with a tone that was neither aggressive nor conciliatory, before returning to their post. The warrior stood by the wall without any expression.

The temple naturally had its own rules in dealing with matters; Lex never bothered much with it. It was only unexpected by her that Saleen’s men went about their duties with such strictness. They would have rather killed the wrong person than to hesitate and let an assassin by.

The warrior hailed from Sregl Island. In their eyes, there were nothing else other than orders from mages, and Saleen’s words were meant to be executed to the letter. Due to such an unforgiving system being in place, more than one-hundred wrong doers who tried to sneak into the temple ended up dead in rather depressing manners. The ones guarding the temple would act against any who dared enter the place without permission, and gave no warning before taking lethal measures.

“My liege. I have urgent news,” a voice said from outside the door.

“Come in,” Lex looked at the door as it was being opened. Another white-robed mage came in, with yet another magic paper in their hand.

“Read away.”

“My liege. Magic Information,” the mage holding the paper obeyed the rules and handed the paper to the warrior standing at the side, who in turn handed the paper to Lex.

Lex stuck the paper onto the reading magic array, and a magic image appeared. Lex waved for the white-robed mage to leave. The mage left the quarters keeping their head low, with cold sweat all over their body.

“So what happened to the other fellow? That guy shouldn’t have just vanished simply because he failed. There was nothing off with the quarters as far as I can see.” The mage thought as they felt a chill from a behind; a sword was plunged right into their heart.

A tall warrior took out the slender sword and dragged the mage’s body around for a bit, before dumping it into a room nearby.

That was the second floor of the temple, and the ones guarding the place all hailed from Sregl Island. The outer perimeter of the temple was as such as well. The spies meticulously arranged by the Cloudflow people, Tanggulasians, and Sikenqinyas were all picked off one by one. Most of them died without knowing why they were killed.

Lex was also unaware that Jason set up check points for clearing out suspicious figures. Jason needed no evidence for doing so, as he only did so to ensure the absolute safety of the temple grounds. The six element space of the Hell of God’s Punishments was not especially important. When the constitutions of humanity were restored and evolved to the levels of the fourth dynasty, even a low level mage would be able to enter the six element space. That would enable them to advance into the ranks of sorcerers within merely ten years.

While the six element space was only able to fit six people at a time, that was nonetheless already an absolute advantage.

Lex read the magic information detailed within the paper in her quarters. It was sent by Bain. The image was a simple one. It was something that looked like a magic map, which was riddled with more than one-hundred red dots. Lex picked out a dot at random and expanded the area where the dot resided. She saw a name, a surname to be specific, and then other details which included peerage status and such.

Bain made his move! It was a move against all at the same time.

There were one-hundred and twenty-five Tanggulasian nobles killed, and the one with the lowest status was a level three earl. The number of nobles in the Tanggulasi Empire was immense, which was unlike the Qin Empire. If the Qin Empire had lost so many nobles of ranks higher than earl, the state would be at the brink of collapse.

Bain’s letter was simple, and the content was as follows:

‘My liege, I have completed my duty without fail. One-hundred and twenty-five heads of nobles are now hanging on the walls of their own cities. The ten red bishops will require more time. Thirty-six men of ours were unable to make it out and killed themselves. Please do make time to comfort their families,

Bain Thorn’

A list containing thirty-six names was written below the message, with a mark at the end of every name. The details of the assassins could be checked with the marks. The list was something that was comprehensible only to Lex.

It was common practice for nobles to keep assassins. Lex simply kept more than most.

Lex sighed as she put the paper aside. The ordeal with the heavenly angel had made a mess of her, and had her acting on impulse. “What is the use of killing all ten red bishops? The Holy See will have nothing much to lose over it.” She had wanted to summon Bain back home, but Bain would not be able to receive any message from her.

Once Bloody Impact commenced, there was no turning back before the mission was accomplished. “Bain is searching for targets. Which city will he go against next?

There were two major cities on the Glorious Plains: Holy City and Glorious City. Holy City was the city where the pope resided and was guarded by the sacred knights, while Glorious City was the hub of the pivotal council — the gathering place of red bishops.

Bain was at the central plaza of the Glorious City, dressed in ascetic garb. He had tens of assassins dressed as devotees kneeling behind him.

A high priest was preaching at the center of the plaza. The entire place was surrounded by Light of Glory, emanating a serene, tranquil feeling.