Merchant Of Yliaster

Maxwell found the church pretty much the same as he left it, but a feeling of agitation could be sensed in the atmosphere. The eyes of the priests darted around, as if they expected enemies to appear any second.

One of them nearly attacked Maxwell, as his attire wasn't exactly aligned with light, but the rogue priest was immediately interrupted by a more intelligent one beside him.

Maxwell walked through the church and directly entered the private part belonging to the priests.

He was not surprised to see Neivor standing there, as if he knew he was coming. The man, though, was looking at him like he was considering asking something. However, his expression turned back to normal, as if nothing had happened, with only a shadow of alertness remaining.

"Thanks for coming," Maxwell entered the private section of the church without problems. The said place was a relatively small walled-off area at the back of the church. It was not very big, but it was enough for the limited number of priests in the church.

He was not surprised when he saw Neivor at the center of the section, looking at something. Some priests were lighting fires along the walls, installing torches with a completely unnecessary frequency. Are they trying to reduce the amount of shadows? Maxwell thought.

It was a respectable idea, but he really doubted that people who specialized in shadows would be greatly hindered by it. Also, torches weren't very hard things to put out. Nevertheless, they would offer some protection against sneak attacks.

As he approached them, Neivor turned to Maxwell, and Maxwell was surprised to see some tension on the man's face. It was apparent that the situation of this particular church was worse than he imagined.

"Welcome back," the man said, sounding tired. "Torches should make them less likely to ambush any members successfully, but you, as a shadow user, probably know that they won't change much," he added, noticing his glances at the walls.

Maxwell was glancing around curiously for sure, but the object of his curiosity was not really some mundane torches. With his new senses, he could see that there was something different about the building they were in.

The building had a quality Maxwell couldn't immediately describe. He could sense something, but it was just at the edge of his perception. Is this how divine influence feels? Maxwell thought, noticing that the feeling was not very unfamiliar.

Shergoth's energy, too, had the same quality, albeit in a much weaker way. This half proved that Shergoth was a weaker god. The church of the Heavenly Kingdom almost vibrated with an unknown quality. Maxwell could stay here for hours, trying to decipher the weird quality, but that wouldn't look very natural, he deemed.

Nothing about Drakhabgar was natural, though, but still, no one liked mentally challenged bodyguards. They were usually not very good at their jobs.

"When will they come? How many? How strong?" he asked, getting to the point. He didn't like to speak like this himself, but it fit the Drakhabgar.

"They usually attack when they find a suitable timeframe. Sometimes, a new entrée falls asleep, for example, and they use that. Other times, it depends on their patience, really. They usually come in with 30 or so people, but I don't feel like we will have that few of them today." Neivor said, speaking uncharacteristically fast. The man, too, seemed to have noticed this and stopped for a second and breathed in a deep breath.

Mana moved under Maxwell's senses, and he was surprised that only light mana entered the man's body. So he can change it to holy mana with light affinity? How does that even work? Maxwell contemplated in a split second before Neivor started to speak once more.

"Where was I? Oh, yeah. The cultists' power level. Well, since it's night, their powers are elevated, but they remain in the bounds of logic. We can still limit the amount of shadows they can utilize, and our magic is very effective against them. Bad thing is that the reverse is true for us," the man continued, and Maxwell didn't miss that he was intentionally avoiding talking about levels.

"Level?" he asked, probing the man, and received a tired smile.

"They are around level 30, and the highest I ever saw was level 35. He is dead, though, so you don't need to worry about him." Neivor said. It was not hard to see that the one who did the killing was right before Maxwell.

"Your religion permits killing?" he asked, finding himself curious. Most religions deemed the act of murder as an unforgivable sin, and even when they were okay with it when it was for holy wars, it was still weird seeing priests killing people.

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"I wouldn't say permit, as that wouldn't make a very livable world indeed, but let's say that we have some wiggle room. Not like it would be needed, as this is strictly self-defence. No religion I know of tells its believers to stand still and die, no?" Neivor explained. Halfway through, Maxwell knew he had asked a stupid question, but he waited for the man to explain patiently.

"I see," he said, and moved towards a small window at the end of the room. Only one side of the hall faced outside, but the view was surprisingly good. The church had only a single floor, but Maxwell could see that this window was very close to a sharply inclined slope leading to the center of the inner city.

Maxwell once again marveled at the familiar-looking scene. The inner city had technology, and while the security technology was facing great problems due to cameras being broken, the other tech still worked. As night approached, small dots started to adorn the inner city as the lights were turned on.

"Who does the installing?" Maxwell asked, looking absentmindedly at the distance.

"What? Oh, you mean the lights? All nobles had some technology, and they used it for the betterment of the kingdom. At least, that should be the case. In reality, they just do the bare minimum and sell the rest of the service for outrageous prices. Let them suffer in their greed," the man said, joining Maxwell in staring outside.

Maxwell knew asking questions that were too fundamental would be questionable, but he still asked them.

"Are you one?" Maxwell probed. He already knew nobility was not easily gained. His research in the limited library from before showed him that the nobility system was an old one. Paradoxically predating the kingdom.

The only reason it still existed was probably due to the immense difference that the existence of technology on one side made. Now that the system was giving out levels, the difference would turn negligible. It was no surprise that the nobility system, too, would now change, getting tied to levels.

"I am not a noble, I assume you were asking that? Big enough religions have their own spots in the inner city, and we are pretty much the same with nobles when it comes to information access, if not better. When I was young, I was startled by the false omnipotence of technology. Later, I discovered that it was just another tool." Neivor said, sipping his tea.

When did he get that tea? Maxwell stared at the glass. His dominion was in full swing, so he knew that there was no one in their vicinity. The glass, though, was awfully real to his senses.

"Let me show you while we wait," Neivor said, looking interestingly excited like a boy who planned to show his favorite toy to a friend.

They walked through the private parts and, to Maxwell's surprise, climbed through a narrow section of stairs. The length of the stairs was not very high, and they immediately emerged on a small balcony.

Maxwell, sensing the place with his dominion, knew the general shape of the building, but he hardly focused on individual pieces without any reason. He knew that this was the balcony, seeing the public part of the church after some examination.

It was a grand building, adorned with many inscriptions, and seeing it from above made it seem even more breathtaking, but the main object on the balcony was something else. At the edge of the balcony, a big book stood on a pedestal, releasing a subtle wave of energy that Maxwell could feel.

The feeling he got from the building itself was many times stronger in the book, and Maxwell could see an immense amount of holy mana inside the book.

"Can you feel it? Even our initiates need some time before they can feel the divine energy of the codex." Neivor said, looking at the book in devotion.

Maxwell ignored the question and observed the book. Immediately, he could feel something like resistance trying to block his senses from getting through, but his etherium soul simply ignored it.

Heavenly Codex (Replica) - Tier 3

The supreme religious text of the Heavenly Kingdom, created by God himself. This is just a replica created by the believers and endowed with divine energy by the vassal. Due to the connection to the God of the Heavenly Kingdom, the tier of the artifact is elevated.

Divine abilities have an increased effect when the user is in the periphery.

The effects are even more pronounced if the book is read out loud.

Tier 3? My mask is still better. Maxwell thought, not so humbly. As he read the result of his skill, Neivor was looking at him with a weird expression.

"Did you just break through the concealment?" he asked, sounding astounded. It was clear that the book sent the man some kind of feedback as Maxwell slipped through the resistance it tried to show.

"I see why our god wanted me to meet you," Neivor said, not really expecting an answer. He threw a questioning glance at the book strapped to his belt. It was apparent that the man desperately wanted to ask for clarification, but the book stayed calm, not looking any different from a usual book.

Just about now, Maxwell's eyes widened under his mask as he felt some figures enter his dominion. His dominion, thanks to his increased soul space, was much wider now, so he could feel the figures much earlier than they reached the church.

He focused on them, and as he guessed, their concealment skills were not very useful in the dimension of the soul. While their physical bodies were hidden even to his soul dominion, their soul were in plain sight.

Still, Maxwell was quite curious about the concealment skill they used. Their physical bodies looked odd to his senses. They looked almost submerged in the darkness. He also discovered something quite interesting, making him smile.

"Your cultists are here," he said to Neivor, making the man take in a startled breath. Maxwell wondered what he would do if he told the man that he knew one of the cultists.