Badge in Azure

The Glorious City finally managed to form something that looked like an attack. The remaining assassins were surrounded by the Glory Knights. Other than Bain, the other assassins had already retreated along with the other disciples.

Bain counted in his head and realized that five assassins were still alive. One of them was badly injured while the other four had wanted to end their lives with their own half-swords but were stopped by the Holy Masters. White-colored glory covered the assassins. They were no longer able to move, and it was as if their souls were sucked away.

The altar has collapsed and the High Priest that was overseeing the ritual had been assassinated. Something like that had never happened ever since the Glorious City was built.

The Cardinal responsible to the Glorious City was having a severe headache. After he personally witnessed the fallen altar, he immediately gave the order, “Seal the plaza. No one is allowed to enter or to leave. Glory Knights, arm yourselves and bring back the other two groups of knights outside as well!”

“Yes, Cardinal, but…” The Red Bishops agreed but did not understand the reason for sealing up the entire plaza. This plaza was more than one-thousand years old and was still capable of attracting plenty of disciples there as part of their pilgrimages. Sealing it up would be disadvantageous to the Glorious City.

“Just do it!” The Cardinal shouted.

The collapsed altar was soon surrounded. After ordering the Glory Knights to completely seal off the altar, the Cardinal walked to the side and gazed at the center of the altar.

It was a bottomless pit of darkness. Even a grade-9 Holy Master could not sense the end of the pit.

The history of the Glorious City could be traced back to two-thousand years ago and was one of the rare religious cities that appeared during the fourth dynasty. It was where the Holy See began. If the Red Bishops had not followed the Cardinal to the edge of the altar, they would never have seen the huge crater amongst the debris.

The same thought appeared in all of the Red Bishops’ minds. “We’re in luck!”

They had lived their whole lives in the city, but never knew about the existence of that place. That was how ancient the city was. The Holy Masters of the fourth dynasty were far more powerful than the present ones.

It was a miracle!

Many thoughts crossed the Cardinal’s mind, but he finally said, “Arrange for someone to go down. Don’t use slaves in case…”

The Cardinal did not continue. He hoped that they would find traces of God down there and did not wish to blaspheme them by sending slaves down to check. If they really managed to find traces of God, then the Pivotal Council would finally have a chance to rise to power again.

“Cardinal, what about these assassins?”

“Put them on trial. Activate the protocol for redemption. I want them to regret ever stepping foot here.” The Cardinal was not grateful to the assassins even after discovering the mysterious cave. The Red Bishops that had been assassinated were all his students. Nevertheless, the Cardinal managed to hide his anger well. It had been decades since he had lost his temper at anyone.

For someone who had lost all his power, it would be pathetic to lose one’s temper.

The redemption protocol was one of the strictest types of trial, but the five assassins remain unfazed. The moment they entered the Glorious City, they knew that they only had one percent chance of escaping with their lives.

There were too many Professionals amongst the disciples, there was no way they could evacuate everyone. They had sacrificed less than one-third of them and the rest have now hidden themselves amongst the disciples, including Bain.

As night fell, the trial was held in the Grand Church of Atlantis in the south of the Glorious City, where five stone pillars were set up.

The five assassins were stripped naked and their limbs were chained together to the pillar. There was a plaza in front of the church and more than two-thousand disciples of the Glorious City had gathered there. The disciples wanted to personally witness how the five of them would be judged.

The Cardinal was a little distracted. The trial had yet to begin, but he stood in front of the pillars, looking at the five assassins who were bloody all over. Metal chains had been pierced through their limbs before the Holy Masters used powerful divine healing again so that the chains grew within their flesh. They would have to go through torturous pain if they wanted to escape.

Such pain might not mean anything to an assassin, but such escape without any purpose still filled one’s heart with hopelessness.

The Cardinal was tempted to ask the five men why they had done it. They knew that they would die, but they still chose to carry out this assassination in the Glorious City. They must have had a purpose, but they looked insane, just like their comrades.

Would men without faith be willing to sacrifice their lives like that too?

Bain was amongst the crowd that were waiting for the trial to start. All the other assassins that had managed to escape capture were there too. Although the Holy See had many methods to seek out the remaining assassins, the Cardinal has been distracted by the hole that had appeared beneath the altar. Besides, nothing like that had ever happened in Glorious City in the past two-thousand years, so they did not have the same means as Holy City to cope.

The Red Bishops had focused all their efforts onto the bottomless hole. As a result, the assassins easily deceived all the low-level Holy Masters.

Bain was pained to see the five men on the stone pillars. That was only the beginning. What was about to happen next would be the most tragic.

“Not all of you will die, and I will not expect you to admit to any of your sins.” The Cardinal could not control himself and still spoke. He spoke very slowly, “The redemption protocol, to put it simply, is to cleanse all of you, so that you can all become the disciples of God. From today onwards, you will live each day repenting for the things that you have done in the past. Of course, this will be painful because your souls will not be willing to acknowledge this.”

The five assassins laughed coldly at what the Cardinal said. They had never thought of leaving the city alive.

“I have seen many stubborn people before. The lucky ones will go to the Supreme Court while the unlucky ones will become the red bodyguards of the Pope. They have no choice but to use their bodies to protect the Pope as part of their redemption, despite the hatred in their hearts. A human soul can be split into many parts and these parts can be in conflict with each other. Have all of you considered that kind of pain and torture?”

One of the assassins finally spoke, “I have warning for you.”

“Please go ahead.”

“The shape of your head looks like an overly ripe vegetable and looks terrible. Back in our villages, we usually feed pigs with vegetables like that. When I look at you, I think of smelly pig feed. That kind of stench is just like the perfume that you are wearing. So please, go and change the shape of your head and your perfume, then your words will become more convincing.”

The Cardinal smiled and said, “Your words are not vicious enough for an assassin. I am disappointed.”

That assassin purposely put on his most hideous grin and said, “I will not let you down.”

“Ignorance. Under the glory of God, nothing can’t be changed. When the trial is over and all of you are obediently scouting paths, you will know what I mean.” The Cardinal felt better after saying what he said. He no longer cared about the rubbish that the assassins were saying and returned to his seat.

Bain’s expression changed. He could clearly hear the conversation between the Cardinal and his men. He had only wanted to send them off to their deaths, but it looked like he had no choice but to let them suffer.

The plan must still go on.

More than one-hundred pillars of light shot out to the sky from the divine rune charm array on the ground of the plaza and formed a dome. The entire plaza was covered by the glory of the divine spell.

Only the five stone pillars remained dark, as if they were consuming the light. The assassins on the pillars silently prayed. They had their own faiths too. The assassin’s faith was to complete his mission.

They would have amounted to nothing if they had not become assassins. Their children would not have been brought up by the royal family, and they would never have had the chance to mix with noble families and the upper class.

Everything changed because of what Grand Emperor Chanake said. Their missions had allowed their children to have brighter futures. Even though Grand Emperor Chanake had died, the missions must still be carried out. Their children would never know about their fathers, who have given their lives to the Grukos family.

It was a cruel, yet fair trade and the assassins have never regretted their decision.

The Cardinal was flanked by two Red Bishops, but the person overseeing the trial was a grade-1 High Priest. The High Priest walked to the pillars and just as he was about to speak, he suddenly realized that the faces of the five assassins had become contorted and purple-red blood vessels were protruding out of their heads, necks, chests, stomachs, and thighs.

Their ears began to expand, or to be more accurate, stretch until they were extremely thin. Their eyeballs were spinning crazily, and their bones were making sounds as if some magic potion were burning and exploding in them.

Before the fourth dynasty fell, the system of professions on the Myers Mainland was complicated. At its peak, there were more than twenty-thousand types of professions. As humans became weaker, Professionals became those that were stronger than ordinary people. One could be labelled a beginner-level swordsman as long as he knew swordsmanship, even though he only possessed a little sword aura.

Most of the professions had already vanished. Due to the weakening of humans, very few techniques were still being passed down in the ancient books for mages to study.

The five assassins were using an ancient technique – the Summoning Possession spell.

The spell constituted of summoning a powerful creature from another dimension and merging it with the body. The key to activating this spell laid with Bain. In the depths of those assassins’ souls, they were mysteriously connected to Bain. They could only use the technique with Bain’s permission.

The techniques provided by the Grukos royal family were short, powerful, gory, and terrifying.

The assassins’ eyes were spinning wildly. When the white-robed High Priest finally sensed danger, the assassins’ eyes broke apart. Their bodies slowly split apart in the middle as some creature from an unknown dimension was forcefully trying to merge with them.

The metal chain that was holding onto the first assassin broke. His body had turned into dark green. His skin had cracked and fallen onto the ground. His muscles were growing at a terrifying speed. He turned around and hugged the stone pillar before shaking it. The stone pillar, which measured a yard in diameter, was eventually uprooted from the ground.

Bain sighed deeply in his heart. Those five men had finally accomplished their purpose. Their final assassination would also be their tragic ending.