Defiance of the Fall

Zac could feel Esmeralda’s agitation and embarrassment through the link. It would have been funny if it didn’t mean something had gone wrong with his plan.

‘Imperial Templars, what’s that?’

‘The Limitless Empire had many Monastic and Templar Orders,’ Esmeralda said as she emerged from the shrine in his Draugr half’s chest.

None in the group reacted to the sudden appearance of a bison-sized toad, meaning Esmeralda’s stealth worked even against his strongest subordinates. Zac asked the others to give him a minute as his two halves and Ogras stepped to the side. The contract said he had to keep Esmeralda’s identity hidden, though he would have done so without the stipulation. She and the [Shrine of Kanba] were a hidden ace. The less people knew, the better.

Esmeralda gingerly tapped the nearby barrier a few times and shook her head. ‘They were special organizations separated from their armies. Esteemed, mysterious, and very dangerous. This seems to be a remote training base. The Templars erected bases like these at the frontlines and in extradimensional colonies toward the end of their reign.’

‘It contains all the facilities needed to recruit, train, and equip the local elites, raising the next generation’s heroes and generals who’d continue the expansion.

“So it’s like a predecessor to the System?” Zac said with excitement as his vision roved across the horizon and its many towering temples.

He’d been worried they’d find empty manors abandoned by their masters or places of worship for a faith that had been long since forgotten. A training ground to nurture elites was far more practical. Wouldn’t it mean every temple had something like the Tribulation Throne?

“What? What did she say?” Ogras urged.

“Oh, sorry,” Zac said, conveying Esmeralda’s words.

Esmeralda was either unable or unwilling to give others the translating mark. Ogras, whose theoretical foundations weren’t quite as strong, could only make out bits and pieces without a translator.

“So?” Zac said. “These buildings can make us stronger?”

‘They should. The Templars were the handpicked holy warriors of the Limitless Empire. Many of its top generals came from their ranks. I’ve only heard of these installations in passing, but I figure the Templars knew what they were doing. But that’s not the point. These bases are always blessed by Imperial Faith.’

“So? Sounds like everything related to the Limitless Empire is?” Ogras said, echoing Zac’s sentiments.

‘Of course not! Having faith is one-directional and does not provide the believer with any strength. Cultivating faith is different. The population generates faith and its chosen harness that limited resource. If too many did that, there’d be nothing left. Many Heartland factions have no spiritual warriors because those at the top are hoarding the Faith Energy.’

“So what about the blessing?”

‘A blessing means the Deity or their representative reciprocated that faith, permanently imbuing a person or object with a sliver of their power. It’s like a Dao Impartment. Depending on the blessing’s strength, it can cause a huge transformation. A normal rock blessed by the Limitless Emperor would become a divine weapon that could tear a hole in the Heavens.’

The concept was new yet familiar, and not just because of the Dao Impartment Zac received from Yrial long ago. The concept sounded identical to the Tribulation Throne. It would also explain why his breakthrough managed to unearth all these buildings. The throne’s blessing must have resonated with the one here.

“You’re saying the Limitless Emperor has marked this place?” Zac asked.

‘I would already be running for my life if this frontier station had been personally blessed by the Mad Emperor,’ Esmeralda signed while croaking nervously.

“Are you sure? What about the Tribulation Throne I mentioned yesterday?”

‘That refinement chair was probably created by some Monastic Ascetic and sent to the fortress.’

Was he mistaken? No, Zac was certain he’d felt Laondio’s presence even if what Esmeralda said was correct. More likely, the Limitless Emperor’s lingering will had sensed his presence through the Imperial Faith and used the throne’s blessing to form a spiritual bridge.

“What about this place?”

‘The faith imbued in this barrier should be on the lower end. Still, any Monastery or Temple would be blessed by someone at the Cardinal level or above,’ Esmeralda continued. ‘Those are not figures we can discard at our current level.’

“Cardinals,” Zac muttered, remembering the introduction in the Foreign Gods tome.

It mentioned a ‘Blade Cardinal’ having passed the region, almost annihilating an Elder Foreign God with a single swing. Zac guessed they had to be Autarchs, at the very least, extraordinarily powerful ones if they were empowered by the immense Imperial Faith of the Limitless Empire. It was probably a lucky break he never invited a Monarch to forcibly break the barriers. Who knew what could happen if the lingering will lashed back?

“So would we be able to use these facilities? I don’t want to turn my followers into zealots,” Zac frowned.

‘I think so? Only a few graduates would earn consecration and become actual Templars. Most would take up other roles within the empire. If nothing else, there should be a treasury and repository somewhere.’

“So what’s the problem? You can’t deal with the cardinal’s imprint?”

‘How can some outer temples stop me!’ Esmeralda huffed. ‘But you’d have to brand a stele inside the main cathedral to claim ownership of the whole city. I wouldn’t dare mess with that building even if I’d undergone another bloodline awakening. It’s like an ancient powder keg full of deadly conviction.’

“So we’ll skip that place and hit the smaller temples one by one?”

‘…One. I can open one barrier in my current condition. I have to trigger a Bloodline Talent beyond my current level to subvert the blessing, and I’m already drained after helping you expand the shrine.’

“Don’t you think I can tell your exhaustion’s feigned?” Zac scoffed. “You did something yesterday to rapidly recover. The temporal ripples are still messing with my perception.”

‘One and no more! This is my limit before the trial, or it might impact my mission. Besides, blessings are an impartment of will. They are intelligent like an Array Spirit. It’ll notice something’s wrong if I keep at it.’

Zac grimaced as he looked around. One was better than nothing, but not quite what he’d hoped for.

“Manuals and techniques would take too long to showcase their worth. Even skills might need to be refitted to work with our current system,” Ogras muttered. “Equipment or Treasury? Or something similar to the throne? Most of our sealbearers have empty Limited Title slots or very weak ones taking up space.”

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“Do you have any suggestions?” Zac asked Esmeralda.

‘There is one way you can get around the limits. Everything seems to be in working order, so you could target the Hall of Service.’

“What’s that?”

‘Registration and missions. My technique will make it so that anyone entering the Hall of Service is considered a candidate rather than an intruder. If you pass the initial screening, you’ll become a low-level trainee. I’m not sure if the Hall of Service can give out missions now, but the Templars were big on trials and feats of strength. You could gain access to the other buildings if you perform well enough.

‘This way, you and your followers can get a bit of everything, reaping the rewards in subjects where you excel. However, you’ll have to follow the rules and only take what your performance awards. If I unseal another temple instead, we can pick it clean.’

“What do you think?” Zac asked.

“It might be our best option,” Ogras slowly nodded. “I doubt there’ll be anything here that can impact the war if it’s a high-grade training base. And if there is a secret templar weapon hidden somewhere, it’ll probably be in the main cathedral, which we can’t access.”

‘I don’t know about any weapons, but you will be able to enter the cathedral if you perform well enough. There might be an opportunity to snatch something then, though you’ll definitely be marked as a traitor. And before you ask, I won’t get involved with robbing that place. That’s how a thief ends up on the gallows.’

“Let’s go with the Hall of Service then. We’ll be strong enough to seize the cathedral sooner or later. We can extract the rest of the benefits at that point.” Zac turned to Esmeralda. “Where to?”

‘…’

“You don’t know which one it is, do you?” Ogras sighed.

‘How am I supposed to remember every little thing! This is your expedition, you figure it out!’ Esmeralda scowled before escaping into the shrine.

Zac helplessly looked around. How was he supposed to know?

“Let’s ask the merchant,” Ogras shrugged. “He’s spent some time investigating these buildings, no? And he’s lived inside a fortress with a shared origin.”

Zac agreed, and they reconvened with the group.

“A Templar training facility? How do you suddenly know all this?” Emily asked after Zac had explained the situation.

“I can’t explain why or how we’re going to open the temple,” Zac said. “Suffice to say, we want to find the Hall of Service, or at least eliminate as many buildings as possible to improve our odds of picking the right one. I think everyone here has visited the ruins once or twice to see if you have affinity with any of the temples. Any impressions and ideas are welcome. For instance, I don’t believe it’s that palace.”

Zac pointed at a domed ceiling in the distance. The temple had six braziers with blue flames burning at equidistant locations. He’d felt it reminiscent of the building where he inherited the [Cosmic Forge] and given an extra look. The similarities ultimately ended with the braziers and the spherical nature. Any aura was prevented from leaking, but Zac had felt his soul throb upon looking at the six abstract sculptures that lined its entrance.

“I don’t know why, but I feel that building relates to cultivating souls. And another on the opposite side should be a smithy.”

“I know the one!” Emily nodded. “With the flat slated ceiling, right? It’s always made me think of an anvil for some reason.”

“I believe the temple made from blue stone, with five spires, relates to rearing beasts or bloodlines.”

Zac turned to Ibtep with surprise. “Really? It looks like a church to me.”

“The engravings on each tower make me think of different lineages of ferocious beasts. One, in particular, seems to attract my pets.”

“I think I can safely exclude a few,” Galau said. “Do you know the names or features of some other structures?”

‘Esmeralda?’

The group excluded one structure after another, relying on deduction, intuition, and Esmeralda’s scattered memories. Eventually, they were left with three, which gave off a neutral aura that gave no hint of their purpose.

“This one seems like the best bet, right?” Zac eventually said as they gathered before one of the outermost temples that had appeared. “The whole city is forming a huge array.”

The temple didn’t look much different from any others. It resembled a gothic church with pitch-black spires, buttresses, and a large rose window covered in dense engravings. Its entrance was a huge arched vault, and there was another one on the other side. One gate let you into the Templar Order, while the other was pointed right at the main cathedral.

“And this should be one of its mouths,” Galau agreed. “Registration at the entrance, where you can take up missions and immediately set out.”

“Everyone back away for a bit. No one come over until I give the go-ahead.”

Everyone clearly held onto unanswered questions, but they quickly followed the order. Soon, only Zac’s two halves and Esmeralda remained by the barrier.

‘I’m a bit rusty, so this might take a while,’ Esmeralda said as she jumped forward and placed her hand on the barrier.

She remained unmoving for over three hours, but subtle changes to the barrier indicated she wasn’t just meditating. The Faith Energy Zac had seen on full display when the temples emerged was being drawn to the surface, and it actually looked like the barrier was becoming stronger.

The barrier’s radiance eventually reached a level that triggered the other temples. Fate was gathering like a hurricane, and a dangerous pressure descended on the ruins. It was like a primordial beast was waking from a long slumber and was searching for the culprit who interrupted its sleep.

Just as Zac was about to tell Esmeralda to stop, she grew to match the grand hall before her. She emitted a heart-palpitating aura, and the vague runes that had appeared on her skin spread across her body. Six profound magic circles formed over the vats on her back, and Zac was amazed to find them a perfect blend of Imperial Faith and deathly time.

The toad moved like a blur, slapping the barrier at dozens of precise spots. Zac could only vaguely make out the six circles fusing with the barrier before Esmeralda was back where she started. The burgeoning storm of fate collapsed, and the six black circles gathered at the barrier’s front, superimposing to form a six-meter-wide gap.

The barrier didn’t seem damaged. In fact, the hole felt like a natural feature of the shield, and the temple actually seemed to reinforce it.

Esmeralda looked tired, but she wasn’t done. Her throat bulged, and she spat out two large poles covered in the viscous liquid from her vats. She stabbed them into the ground, and runes resembling those on her skin lit up across their surface.

‘It’s done.’

Esmeralda’s exhaustion was clearly not feigned this time. Her vats were almost empty, and her aura felt hollow.

“Amazing work. Thank you,” Zac said. “We can just enter? What about the defenses inside?”

‘It should be safe. The doorstops will warn you if otherwise. But like I said, I’m no historian,’ Esmeralda signed before lashing her tongue at his human body. ‘I’ll be able to share your sight now and warn in case something goes wrong.’

Esmeralda disappeared into her shrine, triggering a powerful pull of Miasma.

Zac slowly approached the entrance with his Human body, afraid an undead might trigger something. The powerful faith gathered around the barrier felt like a god staring down at him. Zac kept going, worried that backing down would backfire on him. He passed the doorstoppers and sensed an invisible swirl of energy emerge. And then, he was through the gate, standing before the entrance as a Templar.

It was as though a lifetime’s worth of slumbering memories had sprouted. Zac was filled with faith and valor, remembering how he’d fought the empire’s enemies in the eight directions. Zac blinked, and the memories of his life as an Imperial Templar were gone. They were clearly fabricated, but it didn’t matter. Zac could tell the experience had marked him, allowing Esmeralda’s portal to forge an identity and connect it with the blessing.

Zac exhaled and continued up the steps. The grand arched doors automatically opened to his approach, but Zac stopped with hesitation when he saw a wall of shimmering spatial energy. It wasn’t a barrier but rather a spatial gate like the one that led to the Twilight Ocean.

‘What’s going on?’

‘What? Did you think these small buildings could hold a whole training center without some spatial manipulation?’ Esmeralda scoffed from the safety of the shrine. ‘The main cathedral could very well hold a whole artificial Mystic Realm.’

Zac shrugged and stepped through, finding himself in an enormous atrium. He turned around, exhaling with relief upon seeing the shimmering spatial gate behind before inspecting the interiors. There had to be over a hundred doors lining the room, along with dozens of steles filled with names. There was also a shimmering gate at the opposite end emitting much stronger spatial fluctuations.

Long-distance teleportation, perhaps? But where?

There was an intangible forbidding power when Zac focused on the various features in the large hall, preventing Zac from looking too closely. The only exception was the large service desk at the center and the raised platform behind it.

‘That’s the one. You have to step onto the platform and be scanned. It’s like a sect entry test. After that, you can start knocking out trials behind the doorways.’

“Will I be okay?” Zac whispered. “I mean, I’m a mortal.”

‘I can help you feign some affinity in case it tests for it.’

Zac nodded and walked toward the testing platform, but he only got halfway before his path was barred.

“The Emperor spoke, and I answered. Yet a thief rather than prophet steps through our gates. Explain your presence.”

Profound horror was transmitted through Esmeralda’s link as Zac blankly stared at the vaguely humanoid entity that had formed before him. It contained such terrifying amounts of energy and faith that Zac’s soul had frozen. Only a frantic shout in his mind shook him awake.

‘Why’s there an Eternal Servant in this kind of place?! RUN!’

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