City of Sin

Preparations

What is this seed? Richard could not obtain any more information no matter how hard he looked at the dark green egg. The only hint he’d received from the Eternal Dragon was that it was a seed, and none of his detection spells gave him any further information.

Before he left the Church of the Eternal Dragon, high priestess Ferlyn stopped him to have a word. She mentioned her travels to other churches on the continent when she was young. During these practice years, she’d once read an extract from an epic written before recorded history. It praised a king who held a very hideous weapon. He treasured the supreme weapon at all costs, keeping it with him everywhere he went as he protected and improved its abilities at all costs.

Richard thanked high priestess Ferlyn sincerely despite the vagueness of the information she’d given him. It was evidently a hint to the use of the seed, telling him of its importance and the amount of resources he’d have to give it in the future. The sharp boy also noticed little wrinkles appearing at the ends of her eyes after she spoke to him, making her look a few years older. She’d looked exceptionally bright right after the ceremony had ended!

This was immediate evidence that Ferlyn lost some grace. The priestess hosting the ceremony normally gained the grace of the Eternal Dragon, but just this bit of cryptic information had actually lost her far more than she’d earned even from a ceremony of this magnitude. Just that explained the importance of the seed.

That was why Richard bowed to Ferlyn sincerely before leaving the Church of the Eternal Dragon, saying earnestly, “Thank you for your guidance!”

Ferlyn smiled and gently tapped Richard’s shoulders with the sceptre in her hands, “Richard, don’t show any mercy. Destroying every enemy before you will be the best way to show your gratitude.”

Richard nodded seriously, standing up straight with a stern look on his young face. He’d experienced countless unforeseen events over the past few days, and the trials of life and death had instilled an aura in him that did not match his age.

Gaton patted Richard’s shoulder, “Let’s go kid, you don’t have much time. You need to pack up tonight, making a move tomorrow morning. We’ll talk about everything along the way… Ah, right, take care of that seed in your hands. Don’t let it get too far from you.”

They left the church the same way they’d arrived, with Gaton in the lead and Kaylen and Kayde guarding Richard. Senma and Mordred were at the back.

As they followed the route down from the church, they could see the still-expanding Archeron island switching positions with its neighbour. The second island of the seventh layer was filled with shouts, countless lights shooting up around it as those living on its edge teleported away from the crumbling buildings. The rocks on the outer rim just split off, falling down into the clouds. The foundations of the buildings collapsed, and they slowly tilted before falling down themselves.

These islands were three kilometres up in the sky. Without a powerful ability or spell for flight, any living being would die immediately if they fell from such a height. All the plants, vegetation, and rocks immediately disappeared into the clouds. However, the buildings and living things that came later? They fell.

At that moment, countless eyes were fixated on that stunning scene. From the other islands, from Faust, even from elsewhere in the continent this incident had drawn attention.

Gaton pointed at those two shifting floating islands, saying, “Do you see it? Kiddo, this is the result of the arrangement you made. It doesn’t matter whether our floating island shifts forward or backwards, that is just false reputation. If I wanted to move up further, I would have continued my conquest. If you really want to return the favour of the Archerons, then survive the planar wars. Only after you’ve accomplished yourself and reached my age should you talk about giving back to the family!”

Richard hugged the seed and nodded silently. He had a lot on his mind now, and was clueless on how to handle his relationship with Gaton and the other Archerons. He thus decided to face the situation calmly and rationally.

Once they got to their island, a butler moved to pack Richard’s luggage. The children of the family had gotten wind of Richard’s departure, so they came over to send him off. Demi, Venica, and Wennington were amongst them as expected, but all of them were there to demand their runes. However, their motives weren’t exactly the same.

Demi especially looked like she wouldn’t let Richard off easy. She’d arrived just as Wennington was about to leave, forcing Richard to promise to complete her rune before she left in a huff. Once she left, the butler came to inform Richard that Gaton was waiting for him.

The meeting point this time was Gaton’s study. The room wasn’t big, with shelves resting against the wall storing maps that were painted out on magic paper. There were a handful of history and philosophy books, with many more being about battle techniques and the art of war. There were about ten-odd books about cultural history, but all of it seemed to be about silvermoon elves. On the wall behind Gaton was a map of the Norland continent, along with maps of three other planes.

Thus, Richard didn’t sense any cultured or scholarly aura when he first walked into the room. He instead smelt a thick scent of blood and fire. Gaton was sat on the table, cleaning a magical sword. He gestured to Richard to close the door behind him, muttering, “Kiddo, you have to start exploring other planes right away because of the seed. There’s a saying in planar wars, ‘Even the beasts of Norland are prettier than the elves of other planes.’ Every living thing, even the gods of life in the plane, will be your enemy the moment you step foot in there. Every. Single. Person. Kill your enemies first, before you consider any other problems. Be merciless and apathetic, and know that in most cases the best choice is to extinguish all your enemies. You will only be digging your grave with kindness.”

“I will not show any mercy,” Richard replied.

Gaton chuckled, “Don’t be too confident yet, kiddo. There is a huge difference between wars in Norland and planar wars. Even I wasn’t used to it. You’re going to be visiting a lesser plane that restricts the power of its inhabitants to about level 15 by our standards. I’ve already set up a base there, so you’ll have some guides when you enter. But don’t be startled if anything unexpected happens. It would be odd if there wasn’t any incident. You can never be prepared enough.”