In the micro world, Logan was frowning as he walked through rows and rows of what were previously soldiers.

The number was limited to 300 members however and he held onto a wooden sword like he always did and was constantly using different eye magic both to train but also examine both the mana system and the physical display of the golden lion sword art.

The next moment, he moved like a blur and like thousands of snapping, in seconds, the soldiers were struck on the places that weren’t working to properly use the form and currently restricted their movement.

Close to 300 cries of pain came as they either dropped or held and rubbed those smacked spots before he stood at the front.

“You are all pretty good, compared to the young children and monsters, your progress is close to 3 times as fast thanks to your military training. This is it for today, those who have yet to achieve the mana infusion, proceed to the official human members and we will continue the process. Those who aren’t instantly attended, sit down and meditate to the training and make sure to channel the unranked technique. It will heal and improve your body where I have hit you.” He said.

The last week of training came with a serious amount of attrition between the eshen soldiers and the golden lions. Especially the training. First was numbers so Logan made scheduled times and divided the army into groups to be able to efficiently train everyone daily.

The first day, there were countless who shouted that he shouldn’t hit them.

This prompted Logan to explain how training the form worked. Muscles that were never trained or trained poorly would be weaker or less flexible causing errors in the many forms they did. By hitting them continuously while they trained the mana development technique of the golden lions, it would actually cause micro evolutions in their bodies like how monsters evolve. It isn’t apparent initially but he picked a volunteer and unlocked the mana infusion and then had him train under everyone’s eyes.

After getting the full treatment of an hour of training, he was told to meditate and train the unranked segment, with his shirt off.

They all watched as the many bruises actually lightly shined under his skin and the bruising slowly faded after several shines and for almost half an hour the areas that were hit kept glowing constantly until it finally settled and he just meditated on the training and trained his mana.

After that he was told to do the form without getting hit and they were shocked by the nearly instant improvement going several attack forms without messing up.

This silenced all oppositions and they just took it like military men should and sucked it up.

The soldiers all left and Logan sighed as he saw the other official members training the remaining children and monsters from the original 300 and they were all far better then the soldiers.

In fact, the soldiers and children were all training together in live sparring matches while others trained to attack in sync.

Similar to how Logan made the combo attack cross the dawn’s horizon and rising sun to form a powerful combo, the magic for the combat form was meant to be done in groups.

A great example is doing dawn’s horizon in huge groups in sync. All the simultaneous sword slashes would combine forming a sweeping slash and the power would amplify as it went.

Feeling extremely tired from several hours of tedious training of the soldiers he headed out and saw someone running towards the door.

“Ah! Vice leader! Quickly, a massive event just happened and the ex leader is calling you quickly! They are in the golden lion micro world!”

Logan was shocked because there weren't many things that would cause him to be called so suddenly like that. If something happened, generally a division would be sent out but it meant something super important had appeared so he proceeded to the special hidden door in the HQ for the micro world and opening it he followed the messenger and eventually reached Logan and Olivia with the old generation and the young leaders.

Others were still coming in though but Max and Olivia were completely serious.

As for the three generals, they were in the process of training and didn’t want to be distracted and Max clearly didn’t want to tell them since only the official members were here.

Going over and sitting next to Olivia and Max, he frowned, “Did something happen?” Logan asked.

Max just nodded and Logan frowned and realized it was extremely serious this time so they waited and he was shocked when the last person came in and all the lower ranked members were dismissed. Max looked at the A ranks and everyone channeled sound isolation and perception blocking barriers before raising a barrier which contained magical auras.

“Alright, the reason I called you all is to understand something important. In the golden lions, there are three incredibly important items that raised and supported our foundation. The first is the mana development, the second is the fighting form, finally… the third is this. The ancient holy artifact of the golden lions.” Max said and raised his hand and placed down a tiny golden statue of a lion laid down like a sphinx with its mouth open.

Instantly everyone stood up in shock.

“Is that really the Golden Lion Holy Statue!” one of the B ranks asked.

“Yes, just like the mana development and weapon arts, the statue was stored by helix. He sent an S rank monster to deliver it to me and it reached my hand not an hour ago. I have confirmed it is truly real however it seems the blessing has grown weak due to lack of faith but this is beside the point. Gentlemen, we have the legacy and foundation that our ancestors once had.” He said.

Suddenly all the older men fell down and many began to tear up.

Logan was looking with a frown, “When you said statue, I had thought it would be pretty huge. That barely qualifies for a fountain ornament, I can barely feel holy power from it.” Logan whispered.

“Faith is a powerful force. You will see.” Max said and stood up, “Everyone is aware, with 700 years of development, our micro world has developed countless facilities and the most important thing that we also helped clean and expand every ten years. It has been waiting for this moment.” He said and lifted the statue carefully.

To his shock, the wall behind him and Olivia suddenly shifted and Max turned as they saw a door open while the A ranks stood followed by the young generation.

They carefully filed through the door which led to a short tunnel before descending into the earth.

They kept going for close to 20 minutes until they finally reached a door which expanded before their eyes, an amazing sight.

A large lake with countless waterfalls and exits and most of all, hundreds of massive and thick roots from the micro world’s world tree.

Once the last member entered Max explained to the young generation, “This is the most core position of the micro world, this water pumps through the entire world and it is also where the thickest roots of the world’s tree is located. We have opened hundreds of underground rivers to channel through her without flood and more and it was for this single moment.” Max said and turned back before going to the water's edge and placing the statue.

Max channeled an immense amount of mana and right after and everyone’s eyes widened the next second

Max let go of it and the young generation gasped as the golden statue didn’t sink and instead, its eyes shined and it stood up and began to move as if it was alive.

It stretched like a sleeping cat and looked around before looking at the center of the lake and quickly ran as if it was on solid earth while the waves of the running water became calm around it until it was at the very center. The next second, a bright light came and spread from the ceiling to the ground under the water. The white roots began to release a grand rainbow like light for a moment before the light vanished. The statue had turned around and it was the size of a lion cub now and it laid down once more like it had been.

The ground started to shake as magical structures began to form under the statue and raised out of the water forming three levels, the top one, a second and finally the lake.

The lion opened its maw and water began to pour out which went down the fountain until it hit the lake.

At this moment, all the older generation collapsed with tears falling from their eyes that they had their holy artifact back and the young generation watched in shock as white light actually formed around them and flowed towards the statue and began to infuse into the statue.

The weak blessing in the heart started to beat like a heart and slowly it absorbed that faith and slowly grew and finally reached the surface and covered the entire statue and that still didn’t stop the faith.

The faith of an A rank isn’t simple, the immense desire from their evolved soul causes huge feedback and it went on for close to 5 minutes as bright white light covered the statue.

“Logan… this is why every religion is forged around a saint and their holy artifact, the most powerful religions are those with a holy artifact. Their strongest members produce the feedback required to maintain and develop the impressive power of the blessing. This is not a common angel blessing, this is the blessing of the god of the sun.” He said.

At that moment, the white light was finally sucked in and the statue released a golden glow that filled the entire cavern like the sun itself pushing the shadows away. Even where shadows should form it did not because this was not normal light. It is the holy light which pushes all darkness.

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Suddenly the clear water it spurted out turned slightly yellow as it glowed and blended with the water. That said, as you would expect from a powerful blessing, the magic of the blessing remained close to the artifact while only smaller traces were left to fall down producing holy water.

“The water is… yellow!” Olivia said.

“Holy Sun water, this is the unique aspect of the golden lion statue. A drop of that water when it has developed to full strength, can completely destroy an A rank being of darkness with that drop alone. There are records that say that a drop of this holy water had once been used to light the many golden lion HQ and each drop helped form a protective barrier against dark beings such as undead and ghosts.” Maxwell said.

“Does it cure curses?” Logan asked.

“Naturally, it is among the top tier anti-curse water. Of course, just like the water god, next to no one will give the greatest water from the pond that the holy artifact sits in. instead they give only the diluted ones.” He said.

“What is that water used for then?” Olivia asked.

Max grinned, “For enhancing the holy mana in leaders above B rank as well as channel the Holy Sun aura through your mana. It contains the greatest effect, that is why so many of our techniques are based upon the sun, don’t underestimate the effect this has. Just like a priest using holy water to train holy magic, our magic will be greatly enhanced as the extra holy magic will be extremely destructive against demon magic if we ever meet it.” Max said.

Logan nodded and looked at the statue before chuckling, “And here you were saying the golden lions aren’t a holy order but the look of these old men sure say otherwise.” He chuckled.

“We never openly created a religion unlike you with the pantheon. Also the sun god doesn’t want or need our faith and that is why the faith is going to the statue instead of into heaven.” Max explained.

“Oh, I see.” Logan muttered.

When it was done they watched it gathering mana on its own and started to channel the Golden Lion mana development once the blessing was reawakened.

“Is it training?!” Olivia exclaimed.

“The statue is the secret storage device for our development technique but it only works once the blessing is active and it only actually activates with faith from golden lion knights. Once you start giving it faith, your faith generally goes to it if it is towards the sun god but not for other gods you might pray to. It is a very developed artifact compared to the simplistic ones granted by common angels.” Max said.

Finally the great event ended but Max turned to the rest, “I do not need it to be said, this is the top secret until we can fully secure safety that the demons cannot completely destroy us. Every person here cannot leave without an oath of secrecy. Words of this cannot leave the micro world, as for telling others, only in this world and only under the same oath of secrecy.” Max said.

Everyone looked at each other and nodded and they all announced the oath together.

After that, all the main members began to fix the surroundings a bit, bringing out small mats and other things that could work and close to 1000 mats extended along the banks while the older generation led the new golden lions to pray to the statue that gave them their blessing and power.

Logan could feel the aura of the faith but the light in the room suddenly became too much for him to open his eyes once more and the aura of the blessing slowly grew stronger with the new generation added in.

The blessing’s aura drew a feeling not many of them understood just like the aura of the gods of knighthood.

Only when the brightness faded they were able to stand and Logan only looked at the statue while awe filled his eyes but he made sure to contain himself. That didn’t stop the sweat from gathering over his brows.

The others were far more expressive and they saw how the statue had grown a bit more and knew this was the course of action for regrowing the statue.

Max stood and looked back upon the knights.

“Good, now we will set the rules, no one who is a disciple is allowed in here, F ranks will only be allowed once a year at new years to give thanks to the blessing for it’s protection and aid, E ranks will come once every change of season, D rank come once a month, C and B rank are allowed once a week. A rank and S rank are allowed free passage but only those who have trained to A rank and above in the golden lion mana form. The cave we passed through contains thousands of magical formations which run on holy power from the blessing. This entire place is a perfect replica created through 700 years of constant accumulation of wealth that the order had in its prime so that we may eventually retrieve the statue. These magical barriers will activate once the pond that the statue sits in is fully filled with Holy Sun Water. Until it activates, we will all gather once a week to give thanks. You will know it has activated when the barriers block you out.” Maxwell explained.

Everyone nodded and slowly picked up their things and following the leaders leaving first they filed out until they appeared once more into the meeting room and closed the entrance securely.

They were all dismissed and Logan walked out into the sun and looked up at the shining star that illuminated their world.

He stared only for a moment and sighed.

Eventually he headed back to his micro world and happened to look at the chapel that Jade worked very hard to build. The pedestals all had a block of white marble and would eventually have the image of the god’s sculpted out.

He remembered the feeling of praying to the artifact but at the same time that he did that, he also felt like it was very empty, almost like a transaction between two parties. They gave faith and in return gained the water. It felt very emotionless and he wondered if this was how all religions felt.

This feeling confused him so he walked into the chapel and found it empty except for all the pedestals which contained the crest and names of the gods.

Unconsciously he looked beyond the statues and crests at the walls and felt like this small chapel didn’t properly give the feeling it should, like there were countless things that seemed to cause interference with the feeling of the gods and much more.

He walked to the wall on the right and touched it and closed his eyes. In his mind, the small chapel appeared but from the position his hand was placed, the small wood building changed and the chapel expanded just a small bit in all sides while the walls thickened and became stone.

Then the stone began to change and form different designs and spaces which became each god’s ‘seat’ all the way to the back where the primordial god of knighthood would sit.

The design wasn’t complex, it just opened the center and made it less of a museum and more of an actual place of worship.

When he opened his eyes, he felt something strange as the image was firmly imprinted into his mind. With the many unique feelings he had since the return of the statue he called Jade and with some paper, he drew a detailed blueprint of the entire interior and exterior that had appeared in his head.

She gasped when she saw it. “This… this is perfect. It is perfect for a pantheon chapel, there is even a natural flow of mana through this. But… why do you constantly add these directional indicators to show which way is north?” Jade asked.

“Don’t know, I just know that for everything you just said to properly work, that side has to be facing the north side of the micro world or it will not work and instead might invite bad results.” Logan said, still confused that he knew this and Jade could see it.

“Master must have had a minor revelation from the pantheon. Although I am their priestess, I am also your battle beast so to some extent, you have a strong bond to them like I do and might be able to communicate with them if you just try.” She said.

Logan looked down and shook his head, “I don’t feel like I could do like you can. There may be a bond but I don’t feel mentally ready to cross that bridge and they probably know it. They probably sent this because of something that happened today. You will see it soon as well but for now I can't say what it is.” He said.

She nodded and looked down with a bright smile. “With these blueprints we can properly make official chapels with all the correct shapes and conditions that will stimulate the aura of the gods properly. We can truly get off the ground.” She said happily.

He smiled weakly and said nothing. He momentarily looked at the small wooden chapel before taking a deep breath and changing the subject. “How are the soldiers, in the time I was gone, how many achieved the mana infusion?” He asked.

“With help from the children and other humans who know where to look, we got about 70 more and are still working.” She said.

“Good, keep working on them as best you can. We need this quickly done so that they can learn the techniques faster. Also, you and Storm have been taking care of the remaining 300 from the original group, how are they coming along?” he asked.

“Really great, especially your family. The constant training is doing great for all those with weaker life force and the exercise from training mana and their bodies is constantly healing them up while improving their strength. With all the mana infused into their bodies, the speed they are developing their mana is also improving thanks to their life force slowly returning to normal. That said, they are still much slower than the others, it is to be expected from the poor ones who suffered for the longest times.” She said.

Logan sighed and nodded, “Alright, I’ll get to the next group, try and complete at least half of the previous group before they finish their training.” He said.

With a nod, Jade went to do her job and help open the heart vessels and Logan called the next group of soldiers to start their training.

The next day, the entire division was sent to man the patrol and police three villages as their main job.

They reached the villages and there were already dormitories.

From official knights, he split 100 of them and made them captains while the soldiers being trained were split into squads under the official knights. They organized patrols and shifts between them all and split them among the three villages as well as road patrol between the roads between and around them.

Basically the shifts would divide between, breakfast, patrol, lunch, train, dinner, sleep. There were four shifts, patrol lunch and sleep would be pushed ahead one spot for each shift change with food breaks being stationary times. The night shift was divided into two halves so that one shift still had time to sleep.

They instantly started working under this while Logan and the remaining 85 knights were to complete adventurer guild commissions that were coming in spades because even with an army there was banditry and their destroyed neighbors were by no means any less calm. In fact, they were starting to probe how organized the army had become and it was time to smash down the hammer to show how prepared they were.

Each leader was captain of their own airship now to allow them freedom of travel and they, along with most of the other 50 young generation leaders, all left with their divisions to deal with countless threats all over the place while the 300 original members worked extensively to quickly retrain the higher ranked soldiers while they were rebuilding their magical systems under the golden lion mana development.

They were racing against time to quickly build the countless divisions and quickly obtain official members into the order instead of nearly 500,000 unranked disciples. The only positive part is that their previous training and discipline was helping them out now to quickly catch up alongside the heavier handed training method which combined hitting and healing. This speed would also be impossible without the mana infusion and they all felt it, especially the injured S ranks who had their mana fill their bodies and it helped heal their physical injuries but drained a lot of mana.

As for their training, they had begun the unranked segments and were closing the cracks in their mana pools and channels with unranked mana like patchwork. The missing limbs of the navy generals were of little concern at this time as they were stabilizing their own bodies and working as fast as possible, especially the air force and army generals who hadn’t lost limbs.

That said, that didn’t mean that the potion for limb regrowth wasn’t something that was being ignored, in fact, it intensified with three of the A ranks going with their divisions to the Great Empire and the other four nations that survived to see if they could purchase ingredients.

An A rank is far more likely to be successful at far quicker times to get the rare ingredient especially since some unique ingredients such as an adult dragon’s heart was something no common person could hunt for.

With the A ranks moving to constantly improve the condition of the S ranks to obtain true S rank protectors, the upheaval was the only problem that began to appear and was being dealt with.