With the end of the agonizing screams of Royce, as his soul was torn from his body, the barrier around them slowly disipated. Rex was very meticulous with tracking any and all odd movement as soon as the barrier was gone, and then he tracked the people who moved away from the area after noone was leaving for a moment. There were four people, who converged at the same place. They quickly spoke to one another, suprised that teh barrier was already gone, since their lord inquisitor did like to take his time one the target was captured and locked away in the barrier.
Rex, thanks to the ability of his eyes, had been able to analyze the structure of the spell, and so he now employed the same barrier to lock the four in a sealed space with himself, then he used his speed to move close to the four, as if appearing out of nowhere to their perception. And since he was not doing anything to mask his personality, they instantly recognized the target they were tracking for quite some time in the city.
"Looking for someone?" Rex asked in a rather cold tone.The four steppd back, as if ready to dart in all directions, when Rex added
"Dont bother, we are in the same kind of barrier your boss uses." and his words scared the four even more, rooting them in place. Rex knew noone would be left to speak of what was gonna happen here, so he did not even bother, once they were bound with his mana chains he branded them. A few questions later, once Rex had all the information regarding any other spies and workers of the Echlisiarchy operating in Blythe that was known to the four, he quickly executed them, and used drain, the remains scattering as mana dust once he was done. Then he moved stealthily once again and arrived at Victors palace.
Once inside he did not waste any time adn went dirrectly to the mans office. As luck would have it, no one was having an apointment with Victor, providing Rex with instant acsess to the lord of the city. And once inside, Rex employed his recently aquired barrier ability, elliciting a weird frown from Vitor.
"So what is this about?" he asked, sensing some sort of a change in the air.
"I just deployed a barrier, locking us inside. No one can gain acsess to us for the time being, unlesss there is some insanely skilled mage with space or formation knowledge."
"And,why is that relevant?" Victor asked again, not quite seeing the point in Rex's actions.
"Well, first i just wanted to show off the skill I just got from a retard that bit off more than he could chew, and attacked me inside the city." and seeing Victor frown, Rex explained more specifically
"I meant the true archon was attacked, not the blood mage Rex. By the way, I will be calling this persona Noa. SS class battlemage Neo, at your service." Rex jokingly bowed as he introduced this persona he would be employing in his next stunt.
"And the cunt wo attacked me was called Royce Rambert. Inquisitor extraordinaire...."
"WHAT?" Rex was interrupted by Victors exclamation "Where is he?" and seeing Rex raised eyebrow, he realized the stupidity of his question, he facepalmed himself "Right, dead. Of course, he attacked you, after all."
"Yep, and since i had him spill the beans their saintess Elena Vex was entirely aware of his actions, and even encouraged him to be done with the taks as fast as possible, while still employing the man to strongarm multiple people to start set up an elaborate plan to get in the eyes of teh blood mage, with the final objective to get the man to work for them near exclusively. An order from their council, no less."
"FUCKING LUNATICS!" Victor exclaimed, angry at the way the Echlisiarchy was just doing whatever they pleased whereever they sent their agents, as if the rules of the world did not bound them like the rest.
"So whats your plan?" Victor asked, knowing Rex would not have come to him, if he didnt need Victor to do something specific.
"Just keep your guards away from their current residence, since an angered SS class entity is going to go and claim his compensation. By the way, are you interested in the services of a holy whore?"
"What now?" Victor asked, not quite understanding the question.
"A holy whore. Since they are being so nice as to attack me and to send an apology gift at the same time, I dont mind taking both. Since Neo happens to be the one obtaining blood mage Rex's special supplies, no authority in Blythe should interfere with his personal beef, right? And Rex will have no issues branding the mans personal retinue of Echlisiarchy's sainteses and priesteses forhis business endeavors. A high class brothel called Neo's Holy Whores."
"You are joking right?"
"Nope, deadly serious. I will have a high class brothel called the Holy whores, where branded echlisiarchies high ranking priesteses, oracles and saintesses will be working. This is the second time some of their lunatics are trying to kill me, and i believe its high time to return the love. That will have to wait untill I have dealt with both Rashuuns and Al Merhaads problems though, but does not mean I cant vent a bit on saintess Elena, so cook up and exuse." thinking for a second, Rex shaked his head
"Wait, I already did. Neo can blast solo in the deep floors and is the supplier of earth grade meat, and possibly the heaven grade, to Rex. That amount of value is enough for you to ignore the things he does to people that are stupid enough to take action against that level of power within city. That would serve as double the warning, since they spat in the face of Blythes management with going behind your back with their black op."
"Do what you wish, however try not to destroy the mansion too much. It costs quite a bit to repair that level of architecture, okey?" And to Victors request Rex gave a thumbs up
"Roger boss, minimal collateral. Off I go now." and with that he disspelled the barrier, and left the palace of the city lord, his next destination quite clear- the temporary residence of the Echlisiarchy.
As Neo, was on his way to return the kind gesture to the fanatical teocracy, Victor did his job and covered his ass. He sent a one of his men to deliver an envelope to the adventurers guild. Previously Blythe was not important enough to warrant other nations to build gates to their domains here, there was little choice in how one could spread important information fast. The only reliable way was to use the adventurers guilds channels. Every guild branch had a communicator, that was connected to their data central, from where then the guild relayed the information to other branches. And while it ussually cos a pretty penny for adventurers to forward information guild did not consider important from their point of view, city lords were different. They had free access to this particular service, when they wanted word to be spread. And so Victor used exactly that. The message was simple- Echlisiarchy attacked a powerfull person, who happens to be an archon and failed in their assasination attempt. Whats worse, they did so in another nations city. As such he has no other choice but to condemn their action, demand compensation for their breach of peace and stay out and not interfere regarding any retaliotary action said person would bring upon echlisiarchies people staying in his city."
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The message was delivered to the guild master personally, as it was quite and important piece of information to be sent out, and once the guildmaster of this branch read the message, a smirk appeared on his face. Rare were sympatyzers to the cause of the zealot nation just west of their city, and any bad news for said coutry was often recieved with warm smiles on most peoples faces. And as is his job, he gleefully used the communication device to forward the message. It was recieved in the data central, and then swiftly forwarded further.
Elena was sitting in an office of their temporary residence, finetuning some of the plans she would have to initialize soon. The groundwork was set up, the right artisans merchants and thugs strongarmed and bribed, the scene was almost set, and all that remained before the second stage of her plan could start was a small message, delivered to one o fthe servants of the blood mage, who would occasionally buys some vegetables from the local market. A warning of a plan to hurt her master, a plan so devious, even this little morsel of information was trully a dangerous action, that spelled possible doom to the would be benefactor of sir mage. Then afterwards the aranged plans could be set in motion, creating the very danger that was implied in the small note. It would create a narrow window of oportunity to approach the mage as their benefactor adn initiate the third stage of her plan. It was obviously the hardest part, since, even though large and quite filled with all kinds of rare recources, it would be quite the challenge to offer the mage benefits great enough to move to one of their better cities where she could continiue in luring him more and more to their cause.
She was asuming that there might even be a need to sacrifice her own body, since the mage seemed quite interested in the female form, but she would resort to it only if no other options were aviable, and she had plenty. Already, she had sent for the most beautifull of their flock of believers to be found, adn sent to recieve a short training so they could entice the mage, but it would take a few months and the contact to be established first and foremost. She was wondering how long it would take Royce to be done with the forsaken. They had finaly traced the man during the day, and Royce had left not too long ago to finaly deal with the abomination. From what she knew, the inquisitor liked to torture and break them, before sending those creature off to be purified by their god. And so she expected the man to be back no sooner than early morning. She decided to finaly rest, since planning took quite a bit off effort, energy and clear mind.
As she left her office, and passing by the windows leading to the main gate, she noticed in the corner of her eye a person approaching their gate, illuminated lightly by the street lamps, that were seen here and there beside the road in the noble district. She suddenly felt a chill runing along her spine- a bad feeling of sorts, and quite soon, she realized why. The man raised his hand, and she felt a sudden burst of mana passing by, and then as if the worl around her was enveloped in a veil. A seperate place was created, one where the man in front of the gate and this residence stood alone. The man was now trapped in with her and the guards employed, or was it the other way around since it was the unknown person who had cast the barrier.
She quickly shouted out orders, preparing for whatever was to come, since the man had evil intentions. They had to take him down and then demand an explanation from the city lord. An assault, in the nobles quarter no less, was unacceptable. They could fleece the city quite a bit, giving her new avenues to proceed with her plans to complete the objective. She saw a simple movement of the hand that held a rather large sword, then with a simple push, the invader opened the gate, the lock, as if never there, did nothing to prevent gates from opening.
"Haaaa" the man exhaled quite loudly "I dont like being attacked when I am at home." he spoke "And as such I have come for compensation. Let us see what goods can I find here to slake my anger." And he proceeded to walk in. With the guards already assembled in front of the mansion, the stranger stoped there, just outside of the well lit area, waiting for some response from the defenders. Elena had already reached the door by this point, adn standing well behind the guards she spoke in cold, but acusing tone
"Do you have any idea where you are and what you have done? It is us who are the offended party." and before she could finish, a roundish object few towards them, and with rolling it stopped quite close to the guards, well in the lighted area, clearly displaying what the object was. As Elena and the guards saw the head of Royce right before them, the assailant came int othe light of the lamps too. And they saw those eyes, cold and uncaring, staring right through them.
"I have come for my holy whore, as the compensation for the audacious attack this here cunt performed a few hours prior. I knew someone was tracking me, but to outright attack within the city? Now that was unexpected."
"Such acusations will not stand. We will not be slandered by a foul beast." Elena spoke, but before she could continiue, she was interrupted
"Dont bother, I have enough documentation if I cared to prove both the attack and the involvement of you and your council. Now then Elena Vex, on of the sainteses of the Echlisiarchy, it is time to begin your road of repentance." Rex had worked quite nicely, using his mana in a way that his voice was entirely different than he normally sounded. He even used his understanding and memories of different accent in his original world to create a rather specific speech pattern that drastically differed from his ussual one. He had to dedicate an entire process of his paralel though to keep it consistant, but that did not hinder him enough to be an impact on his normal performance. Even in highly stressfull and quite draining situations he could still perform at nearly full capacity.
"Use everything you have to stall him" she spoke as she turned to leave. While she was capable, Royce was more powerfull while in dirrect confrontation, and none of the guards here were even close to that level of power. She did however reasoned, that since it had been a few hours since Royce should have started his mission, the fight must have been quite close. As such the opponent should be quite tired, and had rushed here in his thirst for revenge. The guards might be able to stall the man long enough for her to reach the fortified room in the residence and innitiate the call for help. And then the city guards would have to respond and take out the intruder. She would ultimately be safe, and have even better case for reparations from the city.
She had just touched the door handle, when she felt a hand landing on her left shoulder, freezing her in the place. Her head slowly turned to that same side and she saw the same cold black void with yellow lightly glowing orbs looking at her. The arm belonging to the attacker, she heard him speak in the deadly silence
"And where do you think you are going?" the voice was bone chilling, yet it felt like the monster was enjoying it. Then she felt another pulse of mana from the man, and he spoke afterwards.
"Good, there is only the two us us here now." and that made her look in the dirrection her twenty something guards should be standing, denying the mans words, yet all she saw was corpses, split in two with perfecty clean cuts, as if it was a hot knife going through butter in insane speeds. It had taken him seconds to move some ten meters and make an instant slash with that almost two meter long blade of his sword, cutting through weapons, armor, flesh and bone, and to arrive here. He must have also used mana to contain the screams of pain and the sound of his blade cutting through it all using his mana. Spell blade, she was sure, only with mana enchanting ones body, could such feat be even theoretically possible, but that would also need a specialized enchanter who would pour all if his mana in a short duration buff. Then a silencer- mage specialized in wind magic to controll the sound and ensure efficient and silent assasinations. She was dealing with a party, and the supporting characters were in the shadows. She had no way to escape, and she could only try and negotiate, and even that would be difficult, since her side had been the one to attack first, and the man most likely had the space ring of Royce. So with her best effort she tried to speak calmly, yet with a slightly subservient tone to not incur further wrath of the man at whose mercy she was right now.
"There is no need for further bloodshed sir" It was trully dificult and she felt repulsed, as she had to address the monster with such politeness and almost reverence, but she endured, as her mission was of such great importance, and she had no desire to die. "We can surely solve all our grievances as civilized people. All you have to do is state your terms and I am sure we can reimburse you for any damage caused."
"Hmh. unfortunately, there will be a slight amount of blood still shed, but it will not result in anyones death just yet." The monsters words had her relax a bit, since her life was not in danger for the time being, but she still had to be very carefull. She would have her vengence for this humiliation one day. Little did she know, the day not only would never come, but her nightmare was only just about to start.