City of Sin

Azure Roar

“Someone’s here!” Back on his island, Richard had already drawn Moonlight and was preparing for a tough battle. He could already feel the crystal walls of the world resonating with frightening power, something he himself would only be able to manage in Faelor. However, it was thousands of times more difficult to control the laws here, making it clear that this would be a difficult enemy to face.

However, Nasia had a look of annoyance on her face as she grumbled, “Enough, how long are you going to fool around?”

"Me?" Richard was stumped.

“Get the hell out of here!” she barked, grabbing him and teleporting to his demiplane. This fact shocked him once more; he had never even brought her to this place, and finding a demiplane in the void was like looking for a specific grain of sand in the desert.

She ignored his shock entirely as she snorted, “You just came back from the Darkness, and the distortion there has become a habit. You need to stay in a place where there isn’t anyone until you can control things. Here I was, assuming you’d already gained control of things, but you’re just a little twat!”

Richard went mum, examining what he had seen to understand what had just happened. He had given in to instinct the moment Norland’s suppression had eased off, and the activation of his laws had resonated with the foundational laws of the plane. If things had kept up for a few more minutes, Faust could have been shredded by the force he had summoned.

However, this left him a little incredulous. Had he already grown this powerful?

“Thinking of how strong you’ve become?” Nasia snorted again, grunting when he nodded in response, “Hmph, you don’t even know how to use the plane’s laws properly, you call that strong?”

Richard frowned, thinking of the man in Arbidis. The entire plane seemed to follow his will, gathering around his sword that contained unimaginable power. That was the true limit of controlling laws!

He looked up and smiled, his eyes gleaming with excitement, “I know what to do now.”

A question mark flashed across Nasia’s mask, “You thought it through so quickly?”

“Mm. I already control the laws, I just need to practice releasing them. But I’m still not familiar with Arbidis yet, I need to find a way to offset the local laws there.”

"You’re going to go back?"

"Of course! And I won't fail this time!"

“You… Whatever, you’re all insane anyway. At least make some preparations, and what can you do if you enter the alter world anyway? Do you know what it is?”

He shook his head, “No, but I definitely need to get there!”

Nasia sighed, “It might be useless even if you do.”

“I know, but I should go at least once. Even if I can’t find her, I need to make sure myself.”

She shrugged in response, “That’s up to you. Stay here and wait first, only return to Norland once you’re back in control. Time isn’t an issue anymore anyway.”

……

It was the very next evening that Richard returned to Faust, coming upon a Nasia who had buried herself in a mountain of documents. One of her eyebrows rose as she saw him walk in, “I thought you’d take at least a month.”

“You underestimate me!” Richard laughed, picking up a document on the table, “Looks like the reward point system is going pretty well.”

Her head already back in the files, she answered calmly, “Your runes are the system’s core. If you’re going to be idling here, why don’t you go make a few runes. Besides, it’s time to get some more pieces of Midren. We can’t just make only one half of the set, our reputation will tank.”

“I just came back and all I hear is work!” Richard shook his head helplessly.

“Work, huh?” Nasia snorted, “Well then, i don’t want to deal with this mess anymore. How about I go take a trip to the Darkness without a care in the world? I’ll come back in a thousand years maybe.”

He could only raise his hands in surrender, leaving the study for the lab that hadn’t been used in the longest time. He holed himself up for three days, and once he walked out he handed a few magic-sealing cases to the attending mage. Despite having been away from his pen for a long time, things had gone extremely smoothly and he had only taken a little under half a day for each piece of Midren. It was just that the result left him feeling rather incomplete, the desire to draw more runes gnawing at his mind.

He brushed off the itch and headed to the warehouse, planning to make a few offerings in preparation for his upcoming second attempt, but he suddenly felt a pull on his heart and looked towards the sky. The Rainbow of the Moons sat silently in Faust, but his attention was drawn to what was supposed to be the phantom of the blue moon that had replaced the original. Most people could tell that this image of the blue moon was different from the real one, but as he focused on it he noticed that every flicker was accompanied by countless changes to the surrounding laws. This wasn’t a simple change of brightness, but an entire process of birth and death.

To those of Norland, the color blue represented destruction. This was the final destination of all life, which was why the moonforce of the blue moon powered the secret sword known as Annihilation. It was just that this was a move that ended in mutual destruction; Annihilation drew upon its user’s power with reckless disregard for life, inevitably injuring or even killing them.

Watching the phantom moon, Richard felt like he had seen the life and death of the world. His thoughts drifted to when he had witnessed the Land of Dawn being pulled into the domain of order, birthing a number of new planes before his very eyes. The laws of the Darkness weren’t truly extinguished, but that sector had been pulled away and destroyed.

He suddenly realised the connection between the blue moon, creation, and destruction. As The one person on Norland whose very truename meant destruction, he gasped and rushed back into his lab. This time, he spent an entire month within.

……

The powerhouses in the reward point system cheered loudly at the launch of the remaining pieces of Midren. Years had passed since the last release, but this time all of the remaining four pieces had been opened up!

Counting the duplicates, the eight runes Richard had released so far had been scattered in the hands of five different powerhouses. Now that all four of the rest had been released, they would be snatched away by at least two or three different people. Collecting the entire set this way would take years. Some people had already changed their minds and were selling their pieces on the exchange, but it took far more than the original 10,000 points to collect them all this way. The effective price came up to forty top-tier offerings, a wealth which even the Celestial Sage would find difficult to amass.

Still, many people couldn’t control themselves once the exchange cycle started, many spending their accumulated points in an instant. The end result was that all four pieces landed in the hands of different people, making collecting everything that much harder.

Once the auction ended, those who had emptied their pockets wanted nothing more than to rush back into the abyss. They only had points in their eyes, but even the most agitated of them had to wait for two days as the next exchange list was delayed for two days before being announced. This list was the motivation for all of their struggles, and with Richard’s return any delays could only bring good news.

All of the powerhouses restrained themselves and waited patiently for the new list, and two days passed in the blink of an eye. When the time arrived, Nasia arrived at the plaza and placed a thick stack of papers on the table, the copies being snatched up immediately as everyone read through carefully. One impatient sky saint suddenly let out a weird shriek, followed quickly by a legendary warrior. It wasn’t long before even the more powerful legends started whispering to their friends, but their voices were as loud as shouts anyway.

This season, there was only one high-grade rune up for exchange, and it required a whopping 50,000 points to win. It was called the Azure Roar, and the first line of explanation alone made it worth ten times that price.

This was the first true grade 6 rune in Norland!