Badge in Azure

“0 AG, first year of Anno Gloria, God descended upon the land. Seeing how the land was filled with the laments of people struggled to survive, God said, ‘should there be anyone who would cast aside everything they have to save the people in pain and suffering, I shall bestow upon him eternal life.”

The red bishop yapped away at the altar. While Bain’s eyes were filled with respect, he was also calm — a demeanor befitting an ascetic. The assassins behind him all kneeled on the ground and looked dazed from the speech. Each and every one of them excelled at mimicking behaviors and thoughts of other people.

What was even more peculiar was that each and every one of the assassinations was born in the Tanggulasian Empire, and the Holy See put a lot of emphasis on one’s place of birth. Some of these assassins were even qualified holy masters.

All these assassins were desecrators, for having evidently unclean thoughts yet were capable of using divine powers.

The voice of the red bishop at the altar permeated the entire plaza. The group of assassins led by Bain were hiding among all the other adherents, who numbered in tens of thousands, thus making them but a speck of dust hardly worth noticing in comparison.

The preaching lasted for more than six hours, and was held in the last week of every month. Events like that were common in the Glorious City. Bain waited patiently. His body hardly moved an inch and the gauntlet on his hands were kept hidden within the sleeves of his robe.

It was uncommon for ascetics to possess such fine weapons, but gauntlets were inherently weapons of high quality. Bain’s pair was crafted personally by Nicholas for him. The pair was made entirely out of metal, lined with soft gold within. It was worth nearly the same as wrought gold. The outer layer was fitted with plates like the scales of animals and divine runes were carved on every plate that was jutting out.

The weapon covered about half of the length of his arm, covering Bain’s elbow. The plates covering his forearm all had the likes of gems, dragonshards, and divine crystals etched into them. The pair was probably the most luxurious piece that Nicholas had ever crafted.

As soon as Bain put his mental powers to work, a beam of light at the length of a foot and a half would spring along the length of the gauntlet, making it able to function as a dagger. Bain also carried a book in his right hand, which when inspected by anyone else, would have appeared as little more than a codex of the Holy See.

The book, however, actually concealed a row of bow tubes within. While the effective range was only twenty-yards, the bolts were lined within purple gold liquids extracted from purple-gold sea urchins, enabling the bolts to penetrate most energy shields.

Bain also carried an old, broken stone tablet on his back. Divine runes were carved into the tablet. Such tablets were relics left over by ascetics during the times of the fourth dynasty. The regime back then banned all preaching of the teachings of the Holy See. As such, ascetics had no other choice but to leave behind writings on pieces of stone in hardly reachable places like mountain tops, concealed river valleys, or wilderness that few wandered into.

The collapse of the fourth dynasty marked the rise of the Holy See. Ascetics ceased running about just to stay alive like they once did. The tablets left behind during the fourth dynasty then became precious relics, something that ascetics often carried on their person.

Bain’s get-up was impeccable, so much so that most would not have found anything out of place about him. He was merely an old ascetic who had brought his most precious collection to the Glorious City, to lend his ears to the preaching of the red bishop.

The assassins did not look out of place. Other than the ones behind Bain, there were more than thirty others lying in wait in other corners of the plaza, awaiting Bain’s orders in silence.

It was the third time Bain had attended such a preaching event, resulting in him being impeccably familiar with the procession of the entire event. The information gathered from actually being there and from packets of intelligence was very different. As an assassin, Bain did not allow himself to put his trust into any piece of intelligence easily.

The sun was setting. The preaching began in the morning, and had to be continued until the sun was at the western horizon. The beginning time of each preaching was different, but the event was not allowed to end until the very moment before nightfall.

Such was God’s Decree, to have the light continue in times of darkness. There was a tall stone pillar at the altar, which emanated unparallel brightness as the sun disappeared from the sky, working in place of the celestial entity. The event was to end at such a climax.

There was an event of bestowing holy water before that. When God appeared in the world, he chose three-hundred to preach in his place. As such, the bestowal of holy water would have been only for three-hundred selected followers. Bain’s position at that day meant that he would definitely be chosen.

Time passed one second after another. Bain tempered his breath, purging all unnecessary thoughts and concerns from his mind.

He had undergone intense pondering before selecting the plaza to be the place where he would make his move. The Glorious City was different from Holy City. While it was the hub of the pivotal council in name, the pope was the de facto leader having all the power to call the shots. The pivotal council was but a puppet institution. All orders came from Holy City, and Glorious City only played a role as a symbol of sorts.

The danger present at the place was not even to the extent of that of in the Tanggulasi Empire’s Imperial City. Red bishops were mostly grade-6 practitioners. Assassinating grade-6 red bishops would prove to have little significance. Red bishops residing in Glorious City however, had some of higher levels among them. The one preaching at the altar at that moment, was a grade-8 bishop.

Holy masters and mages shared a commonality: they were rendered as good as half dead once an assassin managed to get within striking range. Even powerful holy masters were not able to guarantee that they would emerge unscathed from such an attempt.

What Bain wanted to attempt, was to assassinate the red bishop in front of everyone in the Glorious City.

He had no surety of being able to kill a grade-9 holy master in one go. grade-8 ones should have been viable, as failing to kill a grade-8 would have rendered him a warrior instead of an assassin.

“The Princess should be regretting her decision right now, I think. I’m not even sure if I’ll be able to escape alive and in one piece after this attempt. Even if I escape the Glorious City, holy masters do have a habit to leave a mark of hatred on those who kill them, right before their last breath.”

Wiping a mark left by divine arts would require years at least, and Bain knew there was no way he would be able to hide in the Tanggulasi Empire for years.

It all came down to luck then. Bain admired the altar with a pious look about him, as the red bishop rambled away flamboyantly, as if the bishop had the ability to rewrite the stars.

Bain was simply calculating the sun’s trajectory in the sky. As an assassin, he had no need for magic timepieces, be it in the form of clocks or hourglasses. None of those devices would be as accurate as the celestial entities.

The high priests presiding over the event began calling names as the time passed. Holy water collected for a month was to be distributed to three-hundred lucky followers at the altar. Three-hundred among the ten-thousand at the plaza were summoned, and made their way to the altar.

Bain was the eleventh one to be called. There were two other assassins behind him who were led by the high priests to the altar, waiting for their turn to receive holy water.

Bain’s mind calmed as time passed, but his eyes were filled with joy. Any believer would have been so for being the lucky enough to receive holy water.

The receivers were organized in batches of ten, and the first batch went on to receive their holy water. Under the blessing of divine arts, they walked down on the other side of the altar. The altar was about one-hundred yards wide and twenty yards tall. There were steps on both sides, making it seem grand and solemn.

The high priest leading Bain’s batch of believers peered at the tablet he carried, but he did not let Bain put it down. The tablet was a symbol of glory, and the act of an ascetic laying down the tablet they carried was tantamount to blasphemy.

Bain walked on to the steps, one step at a time. The tablet he carried made him feel like his steps had never been so heavy. He was not allowed to show his true power as a grade-8 practitioner, so his steps were made in such a manner that it would rouse a sense of respect in everyone around him.

This was one true ascetic indeed! Being at such an age, yet insist on keeping with his practice.

The altar was covered with divine rune charm arrays. One of them was carved into the hole of the stone. The hole did not seem to be one that was created artificially. It looked like the product resulting from something washing off of the rock. The deep hole was filled with a great amount of holy water. Bain took out his bowl and made his way up front.

“May the blessings of our lord be upon you, the light shine on you for eternity, your soul always be shepherded, your…”, the red bishop had just begun reciting the words that he spoke to the first batch of believers, when Bain smiled at him and dropped the bowl on his hand. The tablet on Bain’s back flew up all of a sudden and dropped on the floor with a loud thump.

The tablet grew exponentially in a flash, and became a rectangular object of more than ten yards tall. The metals on its facade shone brilliantly, and the divine runes at the front warped into spirit words. Golden brilliance flowed in between the words, beginning and ending between two dots.

Thousands of tiny holes appeared on the sides as the tablet turned from stone into metal, spraying black smoke all over the place. The black smoke congealed instead of dispersing. A spirit word appeared in the air.

Believers who were touched by the black smoke shrieked in panic. Their flesh was corroded in an instant, revealing the bone within.

The red bishop was shocked. He had not thought of the possibility of seeing spirits of the dead there. The power of belief in the Lord of Glory, after all, proved very potent against dead spirits.

Even a golden grand swordmaster would have had to be careful around Bain.

Bain punched the red bishop in the face. The blade of invisible light conjured from his metal gauntlet reduced the bishop’s brain to mush in an instant.

The altar was covered by a cloud of spirits. There were hardly any warriors from the Holy See on the altar. The ones present were almost all holy masters.

“Disperse!”

“Cleanse!”

“Holy Impact…”

Divine spells of all sorts were cast without aim. The holy masters in the Glorious City had not seen battle in ages.

Bain picked up the body of the red bishop whose brain he had just destroyed by the neck, and threw it at the metal tablet. A giant mouth appeared in the tablet as the body hit it, which was lined with sharp fangs. The mouth chomped down on the body and swallowed it.

The plaza was a mess. Divine sirens were heard everywhere in the city. The knights who had not been fighting anything for the past several hundred years had little idea of what was going on.

The heavenly knights serving under the pivotal council were relics of a bygone era. The knights of their age were even weaker than the glory knights from the holy knights.

Bain moved like a specter within the cloud of dead spirits. His silhouette slithered between one spirit word to another, and no one was able to locate him clearly. There were several grade-7 holy masters on the altar. None of them were weak. They were like lamps in the dark, attracting Bain’s attention.

Bain would appear as soon as a disperse spell was cast, and break the neck of the holy master casting it. He would then throw the bodies at the metal tablet. The metal tablet suffered severe damage under the powers of divine spells. Every attack caused a crack to appear on it, which Bain saw as a time to throw a body at it for it to consume.