Dammit, maybe I should have picked demonslayer. Demonslayer 13 sounds pretty cool, right? But no, I do not need that sort of trouble right now, because the Templars might start trying to recruit me instead of kill me, and the demoniacs would most definitely try and irrevocably kill me even more than they already do.

"Hey, Lingfeng, why the hell are those demoniac guys so Hell-bent in coming over here anyway? We’ve had four more alerts for demonic infiltrators during the last week besides the two that had caused a big racket, and even though the guys got caught almost instantly after the alarms went off, none of them survived to give us any useful info, as they went down fighting to their last breath. I’m not entirely convinced that I’m their actual target, or that this attack is something from Jin’s “narrative script”. The infiltrators and the fights are all way too high of a level for Jin, as he would not be able to stand even a single punch from one of those demonized dudes if it came to an actual faceoff, so it must be something else, somebody else’s narrative that is bleeding into our own. A leftover narrative from someone like the Hero of the Sun for example."

"You think that I’m the one at fault here?"

"Well, not exactly, I'm just bouncing off ideas against you. Why, do you have something to share, or an object of unfathomable power on you that you want to tell me about? They obviously DO want something from here in the Sect, and they have not found it yet, otherwise we wouldn't be getting so many scouts, but rather an entire assault-and-retrieval team instead."

"Well, there was one thing that Sect Master Fury Bone of the Moon Devouring Sect was rumored to possess, but we did not find anything on him like that when we rescued you. This whole attack might be related to that."

"What “thing”?"

"A stone Tablet of unfathomable otherworldly knowledge. Something from the legends...they said that Fury Bone built his entire Sect based on principles he had understood from that Tablet of knowledge, including the cloning techniques."

"Ok, so a Tablet of kno*DISC SCRATCH NOISE*. WHAT A FUCKING MINUTE! AAAARGH! WHY DID I NO THINK OF THIS! IT’S THE FUCKING RING!"

"The what ring?"

"Fury Bone’s spatial ring! I snagged it after he died, right before all of you came into the room!"

"What, really? And you only remembered something so relevant just now?"

"Well, I’ve been using the damn thing as my inventory/backpack device, so I totally forgot that it has a huge portion inside of it that’s locked behind a protective code."

"Girl, let me see that thing immediately!"

I hand over Fury Bone’s ring to Lingfeng, since I did not have that much inside anyway, and he begins to examine it furiously.

"Yep, this is a high level protection lock. Brute-forcing it would just destroy the contents, so it’s a good thing you did not try it. Even the best expert at security from my party would be incapable of opening this, but I think I might know someone who can. Quickly, jump on the sword, we have no time to waste."

"3, 2, 1"

*WOOSH*

"AAAARGBLARGAHARGLAAA!"

Fortunately, our destination was not that far off from the Buddhist Temple, as we landed at the bridge behind the Arts Pavillion. I jumped down from the sword again with the blood pumping into my face, making me look dreadfully flustered.

"Wh...hoooophf...Why are we here?"

"To see Lew."

"The Troll that drags artists in the mud? Why him?"

"Remember when I told you that Lew is not to be underestimated? He may act like a retard, but that’s only because he keeps himself in a “low consumption” mode where all of his great skills and intellect are “parked” away and kept ready for a true emergency."

Lingfeng Immediately rushed below the bridge, and began to knock on the door of the Troll’s abode.

*BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG*

"Lew, it’s me, Lingfeng. This is serious! Open up, you big lug! I know you’re in there!"

*BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG*

"Ɠօ ȺաąվՀ! Ɱҽ ʂӀҽҽքվ!"

"NO! GET UP LEW! RIGHT NOW, OR I SWEAR I’M BUSTING THIS DOOR DOWN!"

*BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG*

"Ⱥąąɾցհ!"

*BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG*

The door finally creaks open, revealing a sleepy-looking green-blue Troll.

"ամէ! Ꭰìʂ ҍҽէէҽɾ ҍҽ ցմժ!"

Lingfeng just rushes inside of his house while dragging me along as well, and then gives the ring to Lew.

"Turn off the retard mode Lew. I need you to help me open this ring."

"աąՀ ʂօ ìʍքօɾէąղէ ҍօմէ ʂմʍ ʂէօօքìժ ąʂʂ ɾìղց ժąէ į...Hmm...OK, color me intrigued." The Troll suddenly switched mental gears in the blink of an eye, and began to spin the ring around while examining all of its facets.

"Lingfeng, where did you even get such a thing? This is an old-style craft, pre-Sinovian. Hmm...curious indeed. Who was the previous owner? Maybe we can get some information from speculating around that." The Troll asked while grabbing a few jewelcrafting tools from a storage bag that looked like a Bottomless Bag of Holding, since his hand had literally disappeared inside of the damn thing up to the elbow.

"Fury Bone of the Moon Devouring Sect."

"Ah, that crazy fellow? I heard that he and your Hero of the Sun killed eachother, right? A tragedy indeed."

Yes, and I just received it a few moments ago. It came through some secret channels."

"Then, what’s with the girl?"

"She’s involved. Difficult to explain, I’ll do that later. First, see if you can open the ring."

"Alright."

After that, the Troll picked up even more weird looking tools from his bag, and attached to the ring some sort of crystal rods that kept spinning in place around the perimeter, seemingly trying to find the right magical pathway for the unlock. Lew had a look of profound concentration on his face, and as I looked at him using my Qi vision, I could see a myriad of Qi-strings shoot out from the tips of his hands and land on the ring, poking and prodding at every possible opening. It took about half an hour of him doing that, and switching to weirder and weirder tools, before the “security” option on the ring finally got cracked, making the thing shimmer for a little bit before returning to normal.

"Ok...Done...PHEW! I need a rest now...My head is killing me. Let’s see what’s so important about this ring. Hmm…Well, that certainly is a fortune…Aw, even a Goldenrod Imperial Root? I’m taking that as my payment for unlocking this!"

"Yeah, sure, help yourself. What else?"

"Hmm...nothing that I can see which looks even remotely suspicious at first glance. Just lots of high-level spirit stones, weapons, armors, gold and ingredients of all kinds. Your standard fare for a cultivator, not even a single demonic or tainted item in here. But then again, why would the Sect Master keep such things for himself, right? Fury Bone was crazy, but most certainly not a moron to use such items."

"So no special object that could explain why the demonic sects keep attacking us?"

"Not that I can see, but you need to go thoroughly through the entire list to make sure. Here." The Troll tossed the ring back to Lingfeng. "It’s permanently unlocked for now, so anyone can browse the interior. I’m tired, so I’m going ցօìղց ҍąçҟ էօ ʂӀҽҽքìʂìՀ! Ꭰմղ Ӏҽէ ժą ժօօɾ հìէ վą օղ ժą աąվ օմէ!

"Thanks Lew. I owe you one."

"ҍɾìղց ìçҽ-ʂçɾҽąʍ ąՀ էɾìҍմէҽ ժҽղ! ղօա ҍվҽ, ցէƒօ!"

"Later. Trina, let’s go."

We left Lew alone and took the golden-brick road away from the Arts Pavillion, heading down towards the Hall of Medicine and Goodstreet where my house was located at.

"Hey, can I have a look at that ring as well? Maybe I can spot something that you guys have missed."

"Yeah, sure, whatever, help yourself."

I took my ring back and then I began to browse through the entire inventory menu. There were a lot of items on the list. A lot, lot. There were so many spirit stones inside of the ring that they could have occupied a few cubic tonnes if taken out, because they were piled up together nicely in stacks of 1000 per each inventory square, and there were a lot of squares filled with them. Besides that, there were a lot of level 50+ weapons, armors and weird ingredients that also stacked to a very high count. This was an entire Sect's worth of items, a veritable treasury.

But that's not what caught my eye. While scrolling through the items in alphabetical order, between the [Broken Dragon Bones] and the [Broken Tanned Hide of a Greater Wyrm] I found a very strange item listed as a [Broken Sapphire iPad]. It was quite easy to miss, being mixed together on the list with many other miscellaneous items, so I can't blame the Troll and Lingfeng for failing to spot the item, but “iPad” just yelled out to me as a transmigrator.

I immediately pulled said item out of the ring, and sure enough it was exactly what I thought it would be, which was an old iPad with a custom-made sapphire-colored cover and a shattered screen that looked like someone had taken a boulder to the Gorilla Glass.

The moment I pulled the item out though, I saw Lingfeng pale at the face, and begin to shake. He obviously recognised the item, and I could bet my left inexistent testicle that this was the so-called Tablet of incredible knowledge that the demoniacs were after. Seriously Timmy? A fucking iPad? How did this thing get over here anyway?

Timmy: A leftover from the Alpha stages, when we were trying out direct transportation of “Players” onto the planet.

"So, is this thing what I think it is?" I wave the iPad in front of Lingfeng’s face.

"Yes, that is the item we were all talking about. That's the long-lost First Tablet of Mowses, the legendary Goblin Prophet. It is said that this is one of the two items that had been given to the Goblin Prophet during the Exodus of the Goblin Tribes, when they ran away from the Cat-Beastmen Pharaohs of Ejypt, which usually used them as slave labour to build their temples. After he had parted the Blood-Sea using his Walking shtick and awesome hydromancer powers, then had drowned the Basthetian Elite-Guard Troops that were chasing after the runaway slaves, he had climbed onto the mountain top of mount Saynay and had met with God Aadmin the Allmaker Himself, which gave him two tablets, one coloured like a sapphire, and one coloured like a lapis lazuli.

It is said that the first sapphire tablet had been smashed my Mowses in a fit of rage after he had come down from the mountain, as had found out that all of the other goblins had stolen all of his gold while he had been uptop, and had almost rage-quit the entire exodus quest line, since it was a terrible escort-type of quest where he had to drag around thousands of people behind him before reaching the safety goal. As a former adventurer, I can definitely tell you that I hate Escort quests the most, something always goes wrong with those."

Pftt...Seriously Mother System? Plagiarizing even the Bible now?

Timmy: It was Public Domain, so there’s no copyright infringement, of course Momma System would use it as a reference.

But the semitic tribes and the Goblins? Isn’t that awfully racist and playing on stereotypes?

Timmy: Hey, I’m not the one that invented either the stereotypes or the races, it was you Earthener shmoes. Momma System just copy-pasted them with slight alterations. If the stereotypes and the Goblins fit so well together, why not just overlap them?

Then, what about the other races? Are they also based on crude stereotypes?

Timmy: Well, most are...The Elves and their Elven Supremacy tendencies are based on the Northern/Germanic/Arian races, the Dwarves are obviously Irish/Scottish/Englishmen colonialists, the Orcs are based on Huns/Mongols/Tatars/Afro-Americans, the Western Human kingdoms are based on the continental Earth-Human counterparts from the French all the way to the Balkans, while the Eastern Empires are based on China/Japan/Korea. The beastkin fit well with the Egypt pantheon along with the other sand-based Arabic cultures, and the dragonkin fit well with the Aztec/Native-american stereotypes. And the Trolls are based on Jamaican/Polynesians and/or Millennials.

Your Momma System is awfully rude, you know!

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

Timmy: Mate, we’re in another Universe altogether, who do you think gives a fuck? The whole arrangement of the races only makes the incoming “Players” feel even more at home when they come here and they find similar legends and occurrences to what they can recongnise from back home, on their own Earths.

Who’s this God Aadmin the Allmaker dude anyway?

Timmy: The planet’s current owner. You need to study up on your Pantheon.

Then Mowses was a what?

Timmy: An Alpha tester. We kept the stuff “internal only” during that period. But now that we’re in the Open Beta Stage 1, it allows people from the other Universes to come here and test our platform for stability.

Then what about this tablet thing? Why is it still here? It’s totally broken and out of battery, so it’s useless.

Timmy: Because it makes for a nice plot device, and can also be repaired/powered up with the proper spells.

What’s so valuable about it, that people are willing to kill eachother for it?

Timmy: It has one of the Earths' 2010’s Offline Wikipedia on it. The WHOLE thing.

Well, fuck! That’s really bad!

"Trina, you ok? You keep on wildly gesturing at the air and frowning for no reason…"

"Ah...sorry Lingfeng, I was just having a conversation with Timmy."

"The...voice in your head."

"He’s not a...nevermind. Yeah, the voice in my head. He just told me what’s stored on the device, and it’s SUPER dangerous. It’s almost the entire compressed knowledge of another world into a single item. This MUST NOT, AT ANY COST, fall in the hands of the demoniacs. Even if the item is currently broken, if they find some way to fix it, it could spell disaster for the entire world."

"Then, shouldn't we just simply destroy it?"

"FUCK NO! There’s a ton HELPFUL information in here as well! This is the veritable Apple of Knowledge!" I point to the bitten Apple logo on the back of the case. "We have to hide this where nobody else can find it, and call for A LOT more reinforcements. Pronto! Actually, we have no time to waste. Just take me back to the Spirit Vent Hotspring. I’ll start working on making a lot of pure spirit stones, even if I have to spend the whole night doing it. The faster we get more people down here, the better. And after you drop me off, go warn the Templars and the rest. But do NOT mention the Tablet for any reason. You don’t know who might be listening or is a spy within your ranks."

"Right...Ok! Hop on then!"

"3, 2, 1"

"ARRRRGHFLARBLLLFLORPLAAAA!!!"

In a few minutes, we arrived back at the mountaintop, and Lingfeng dropped me off near the hotspring, then rushed down the mountainside again to speak with the Templar leaders.

I wasn't sure exactly what he was going to tell them, because he needed to cook up some sort of a really good story to cover for the fact that we had found the real First Tablet of Mowses.

Still, it was not my problem, because I couldn't do anything about that.

But the thing that I could work on was the creation of a bunch of charged spirit stones for the teleportation circle.

I immediately unloaded a bunch of high-level spirit stones from Fury Bone's ring, and I began to charge them with the white Qi that was seeping out from the ley-line crack.

I still kept them all at barely over 50%, so that the fact that we had an almost endless supply of these damn things would not seem so suspicious. We could simply blame it all on Lingfeng being a rich bastard.

And so, I spent the rest of the night just shuffling the Qi inside of the spirit stones, until I had a massive pile of them placed near the entrance of the cave. I was hoping that they would be enough to summon an entire rescue army.

In the end, I could see the sunshine coming over the mountain top, signalling that the next day had come, and that I had spent the entire night just stuffing Qi inside of the spirit stones.

I was feeling quite tired after being focused on a task for so long, so the only thing that I wanted to do was to go to sleep.

Hmm, I wonder if I could just simply take a nap while soaking in the hotspring water. I haven't had a good soak ever since I came to this planet. Alright, that settles it.

*Whosh Flutter*

*Clothes stripping noises*

*Bounce*

*Splash!*

Ah, this is pure heaven! Or maybe my clone-self just likes to dip itself into similar stuff to amniotic fluids. Meh, whatever.

*Blurbll*

Zzz…

*Float*

I have no idea for how long I had slept inside of the hot spring, but when I got out, I was looking like a veritable dried plum, with my skin shrivelled up everywhere from the over-soaking.

When I got dressed, it was just in time to see Fungus come in through the vines that were covering the entrance to the cave, as he had been sent over here by Lingfeng to pick me up and take me back home.

"Morning, Boss! Wow, the Elder was not kidding, this is a really nice bathing and cultivation place indeed. "

"I know, right? We should also get Lilliam to come along with us the next time we come here. Can you go loot that pile of Spirit Stones over there? Your ring is bigger." I told him as I did not want for him to know that I had opened the rest of my ring yet. "

"Sure, Boss!"

The instant Fung stretched out his hand towards the pile, I felt a horribly ominous feeling creep up my spine, as I saw an entire Shadow-Figure move from the entrance and lunge towards Fung.

━◦○◦━◦○◦━◦○◦━◦○◦━◦○◦━◦○◦━

5 minutes earlier:

*PoofAppearNoise*

"Senior Knight Fall, why have you followed the Young Master?"

"Ah. Morning, Mr. Nobi. I’m looking for the girl, and your Young Master obviously knows where she is located at. Since they are both up here on the mountainside, it is the best time to truly test her out."

"Are you really going to use it here?"

"Stop worrying. Tools and weapons are meant to be used, not kept hidden away like museum artefacts, no matter how valuable they may be."

"Fine. But remember your promise."

"Yes, yes, I’ll be gentle with your Young Master. I will try to knock him out first as quickly as possible."

"Please take care not to use too much force. By the way, Senior Knight Fall, when Young Master Fung met with Elder Lingfeng earlier, it seems that the Elder was looking for you, and it seemed urgent."

"Alright, thank you for the info, Mr. Nobi, I shall contact the Elder immediately after I’m done here. It shouldn’t take more than five minutes."

"Alright...good luck then."

*PoofVanishNoise*

━◦○◦━◦○◦━◦○◦━◦○◦━◦○◦━◦○◦━

"Fungus, DODGE!" I immediately screamed as soon as I saw the massive humanoid figure cloaked in shadowy wisps attempt to grab Fung. Fortunately, our teamwork training from the forest had paid off, and Fung immediately dodge-rolled backwards away from the pile without any hesitation, causing the shadow hand to miss him by barely an Inch.

Seemingly annoyed by the near miss, the shadow-figure lunged even harder after Fung, hell-bent on doing him in. Fung’s kiting instincts immediately kicked in, as he began to run in circles around the crack in the earth, with the huge Shadowman chasing after his ass. I immediately pulled my bow out from my ring, and I unloaded all the [Piercing Arrows] I could muster into the shadowy figure. He did not even bother to dodge, as my magic-enhanced arrows helplessly plonked off of his frame like they had hit something incredibly hard.

"FUNGUS! TOO HIGH LEVEL, ZERO DAMAGE! Potato Stratagem!"

Fung gave me a nod, and rushed out of the cave entrance through the vines with the Shadowman following. The moment they both got out of the cave, I pulled out one of the Fire Qi spirit stones that I had been experimenting with, which was overloaded in a few compartiments to the brim with Fire Qi and was ready to explode at the slightest trauma, then I placed it right at the door of the cave where the vines were obscuring the entrance. The moment I heard Fung scream [Mad Bull Rush] which was his speed enhancer skill and saw him run back into the cave at top speed, I aimed my bow at the overcharged spirit stone, and went into Perception Overdrive mode for the bullet-time effect it had on me. As soon as Fung had passed over the stone at full tilt and had run behind a rock for cover, I saw the Shadowman step back into the cave through the vines, and land directly above the overcharged spirit stone. I immediately released my arrow, and it zoomed over to the spirit stone, shattering it to pieces and releasing all of the stored Fire Qi inside into an immense fireball that shook the whole cave system.

*BOOOOOOOM*

Argh, bloody hell, my ears are bleeding! That was worse than unleashing 5 grenades at the same time! FUCK! *Ptew!* Luckily, I knew that there existed a secondary alternative exit from the cave, so I was not worried about burying us alive when I had shot the grenade spirit stone.

[Did we get him?] Fung messaged me since he was also temporarily deaf.

[I don’t know, I can’t see anything from the dust...AW SHIT, RUN!]

Seemingly unphased by the detonation, the Shadowman just got up from the blast crater, and shook himself off before resuming the chase, except that now he was really pissed off, as he summoned a huge black bastard sword out of nowhere and proceeded to chase after me instead. FUCK! I think I just over-dps’ed and pulled aggro on the Boss!

What If I were to do the same with a Lightning Stone? Maybe it can stun him!

I tossed a Lightning-charged stone into the Shadow’s face, and popped it with an arrow.

*BzzZZZzzt*, *Sizzle*

Seriously? Nothing? What’s this guy made out of?

SHIT, FUCK, OH FUCK! WHAT THE HELL IS THIS GUY, THE HOTSPRING GUARDIAN?

WHY IS IT AFTER US! AAAAAAAARRGGH!

I kept myself swift on my feet by staying out of the reach of his sword, and leading him out of the cave. If blasting him to pieces didn't work, then maybe the "server physics engine" will. I lured the Shadowman to the edge of the cliffside, getting ready to dodge and trip him by using my Bullet Time skill to push his body over the edge, when I saw Fung the numbskull rushing out of the cave and tackle the Shadowman just as he was almost upon me. FUCK! To Fung, it must have looked like the Shadowman had trapped me on the edge of the cliff, so he must have thought that he was saving me or something! NO, BAD FUNGUS! DAMMIT! Now the Shadowman was turning to Fung and was trying to swing his sword at him!

OH NO YOU FUCKING DON’T! NOBODY’S KILLING MY FUNGUS ON MY WATCH!

I dashed into the path of the sword while still being in full bullet-time mode, making the entire world seem like it was moving extremely slowly, as I extended my left hand to punch the blade away and alter its trajectory before it could hit either of us.

Unfortunately, that did not go as planned.

OH SHIT, OF FUCK! DID THE BLADE JUST GO RIGHT THROUGH MY HAND? I CAN’T FEEL ANY PAIN! WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON? IS THIS SOME SORT OF SOUL-SLAYING WEAPON?

Well, If that’s the case, then eat this!

I immediately dragged all of the Branch-Tentacles that I had dangling out of my body for passively harvesting White Qi, and I wrapped them around the sword's blade that was still cutting through me, then I began to furiously drain all of the Thermal Qi away from the object and redirect it into the Shadowman.

Except that now, while looking at my assailant in Qi vision mode, he was not so shadowy anymore. The Shadowman looked like a golden-glowing skeleton in full-plate armor, and he seemed to stare right into the depths of my soul...FUCK! IS THAT A DEATH KNIGHT?

Well, If I’m going down, then so are you, motherfucker!

I felt the sword's blade shatter into a myriad of fragments as it reached near-absolute-zero, but the fragments still went right through me like phantoms. All of the thermal Qi that I had pushed back into the metal-plate pieces of the Death Knight made him burst into flames, but before he got the chance to recover and swing at us again, I extended my other hand and I touched him with my spatial ring.

[Store]

While Living things could not be stored, the same could not be said for the Undead. The instant I touched him, he vanished into thin air, as he got “stashed” away by my ring’s spatial power.

Right at that moment, all of my Qi ran out, and so did the Bullet Time effect. Returning to regular speed, I instantly felt the drain on my every muscle, but I had no time for that. I could feel the ring heating up on my finger, as the Death Knight was trying to burst out of it by sheer force, so I did not have much time to do something about it.

"Fung! Get me the fruit ladder!"

Instantly, Fung summoned the bamboo ladder that we used for picking fruits from the tall trees during our forest trips.

I pushed half of the ladder over the cliffside, and yelled back at Fung.

"Ok, put your body over that end and don’t move. I need you as a counterweight."

I hesitatingly walked over the steps of the ladder and then stood right above the abyss of the cliffside, stretching the hand with my ring as far away from the cliff as possible. If I’m letting this fucker taste gravity, then I don’t want any chance of him grabbing onto something.

"Fung, get ready to pull me back along with the whole ladder."

"Ok, 3, 2, 1... PULL!"

[Item Recall]

The instant I recalled the Death Knight, he appeared in front of me in the middle of the air with a shattered sword still in hand, but devoid of his shadowy Visual Effects, looking like a plain old Templar.

"FUCK ! NOT AGAAAAAAAAAaaaa!" The Death Knight screamed as he began to drop like a rock down the two mile sheer cliff while frantically waving his arms and legs.

*Fiiiiieeeeeeeeeuuuuuwwwwww* *Thbooomfh*

Seriously Timmy, did you just play the Wile-E-Coyote cliff-drop sound into my head right now?

Timmy: Well, I thought it seemed fitting.

Crap...Where have I seen that dude before?

Aw shit! The fucking TEST! That was Senior Knight Fall! Lingfeng probably never got to him! CRAP! Did I just kill the leader of the Templars? No, wait, what the fuck! He was already dead to begin with! Is that why their leaders never take their armors off? Because everybody would see the bones beneath? WHAT THE FUCKING HELL Timmy? Why are a bunch of Death Knights leading the Templars?

"Was that…"

"Yes, Fungus, that was Senior Knight Fall."

"Well, then he really lives up to his name…"

"I’m going to just ignore that horrible pun, Fungus, because we need to get back to Lingfeng immediately and report this. I have no idea how I survived that slash. His sword went right through me but did no damage. Something severely fishy is going on around here. That dude was UNDEAD, Fung! Is why I was able to store him inside of my ring!"

"Undead? But...He’s the leader of the Templars…"

"Exactly my point. Come on. We have to get back to the Sect RIGHT NOW !"

━◦○◦━◦○◦━◦○◦━◦○◦━◦○◦━◦○◦━

Two miles down the cliffside:

*PoofAppearNoise*

"Do you need a hand there, Senior Knight? You seem to be crumbling around the seams of your armor. Should I dig you out?" Nobi berrates Fall.

"Ah...Hello there Mr. Nobi. No, I’m good. I’ll pull myself together in the next few minutes. I was only stunned about what just happened. The girl really did a number on me. She is a lot more dangerous than we have ever imagined, but she is also Pure of Heart. Chrisamier went right through her like she did not even exist. I felt a lot of burning anger coming from her, but no Malice. She literally just jumped in front of the boy to take the blow for him. There was only a small patch of darkness in her heart, but I think we all know where that comes from."

"The Hero’s downfall…"

"Correct."

"What happened to the sword then? It’s broken into a thousand fragments! Won’t Mortdecai go nuts if he finds out you have ruined his favorite sword?"

"Aw, that? That’s nothing. The sword will fix itself back up in no time. Do you think a Mythical item like that can be destroyed so easily? What puzzles me is HOW she managed to shatter it in the first place. It’s like the sword turned into a piece of brittle ice the moment it went through her, and crumbled into a million shards. I have never seen anyone with a [Skill] like that. And to do that to a near-indestructible sword? It’s...unheard of."

"Sorry for being so curious, but how the hell can you use that blade in the first place? Aren’t soulbound items supposed to only obey their Masters?"

"Ah! But that’s where you are mistaken Mr. Nobi. While Chrisamier may be bound, it is bound to the whole Temple of the Sun, not Mortdecai himself. He just happens to be associated with it because he has used it a lot in the past. But in theory, anyone Righteous enough from the Temple of the Sun can use it. That’s why it’s called the Paladin’s Blade, the weapon that only slays Evil, and has persisted throughout the ages for so long, because it is one with the Temple of the Sun itself."