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Marius was not pleased. Few people would be when they had to clean up other people’s mistakes, but at least most people usually didn’t have to travel across planes to fix things when someone fucked up. “You, you, aaand you.” He pointed to three immortals in ornate silver armor from the group presented to him. The people didn’t really matter as long as they were competent and looked suitably impressive. The selected people brought their fist to their chest plate in salute and fell in step behind Marius as he walked towards a large array of gateways.

‘At least the Host has transportation under control.’ Marius thought to himself. Seeing as the armies of the Divine Planes had to defend the entire universe from the predations of the scourges, they had to have the ability to rapidly deploy troops anywhere.

“What exactly are we tasked with doing?” The most senior of the immortals Marius had picked raised his voice to question. They’d obey even if they were told nothing, but it was easier to react to sudden changes in the situation and improvise if you had enough information to work with.

“We’re going to the Higher Planes. One of our Emissaries got themselves killed by the locals. We are to find out what happened, why, and administer appropriate punishment. A new Emissary will be appointed at a later time once we have confirmed the situation.” Marius explained the basics curtly.

‘It’s a bit of a waste to not send the new Emissary with us. Would save the trouble of opening another gate.’ Marius silently judged in his mind as he watched several mages in silver robes channeling power into the large gateway they stood in front of. Passing through the space separating the Divine Plane from the planes below was not a simple matter, even for the Host. Thus having to open the gateway twice for no good reason seemed like a waste to Marius. Not that he was surprised. The Host could be somewhat inefficient at times when bureaucracy was involved. His mission was run by one department, while the replacement Emissary was handled by another, so of course the two would work separately.

The people in the capital city of the Sacred Dynasty felt their eyes being drawn towards the heavens as a grand magical formation suddenly appeared above them. They all had been expecting this for a while, so it didn’t come as a surprise. Perhaps as a result of that lack of surprise, the city of Ashur was almost empty of people. All the civilians had fled to the countryside and other cities a long time ago. They feared that either the heavens would punish their nation, or the rebels would invade and burn down the city.

The gateways used by the Host were extremely efficient, so the trip didn’t take long. Marius and the three immortals behind him floated through the tunnel connecting the planes and soon sighted the large city below them. The entire city had been built around two hills, upon which two large palaces stood, although one of the palaces was now scorched and badly damaged. The two hills were surrounded with large temple complexes dedicated to the various Divines, fanning outwards from the center of the city and towards the edges. The distance from the center was heavily dependent on the prestige of the Divinity in question. The major Deities were close to the two palaces, while minor gods only got a small shrine at the very edge of the city. The rest of the city had been built to be as pleasing to the eye as possible, ostensibly to draw the good will and attention of the heavens.

“It’s a pretty city. It would be a shame if something were to happen to it.” One of the immortals behind Marius laughed.

“Only if we deem that necessary. The entire nation is dedicated to worshipping the Divines, which is why the Emissary was placed here originally. We don’t want to offend the gods by destroying their temples unless we have to." Marius curbed their enthusiasm. It was an inconvenient fact that the Divines benefitted greatly from worship, and if their grand temples were to be leveled as part of a punishment, then the Host would only be shooting itself in the foot. "The palace, however…" Marius continued, and all four disappeared in a flash, appearing right in front of the gates of the undamaged palace.

The guards didn’t even bother trying to hinder them and threw the gates open. Hundreds of Holy Knights from various temples lined the courtyard in their grand armor, and they all stood aside as the four immortals passed. Marius could sense a bit of hostility coming from the holy warriors, which was decidedly odd considering his group were representatives of the heavens. It meant that these people were aware that this could turn into a fight, and that they’d likely be on the side opposing the four immortals.

As the four reached the gates of the inner palace and the throne room, Marius waved at one of the silver armored immortals to stick behind and take care of the Holy Knights if necessary. Then he placed a hand on the closed gates made of magical wood suffused with spell formations, and the entire gate just seemed to vanish into a bit of dust. The other two silver armored immortals fanned out from behind him to secure both sides of the large throne room, filled with the elites of the nation. Magisters, warriors, priests, and just standard nobles lined up the throne room. It wasn’t just that they had been expecting the arrival of Marius, but that the court seemed to be in session, which the arrival of the immortals had interrupted.

With self-assured steps, Marius walked towards the front of the throne room where three people sat on large thrones. One was a mage, a female human apparently, one was a warrior, a male naga with a wide cobra-like hood protruding from the sides of his head, and finally, the one in the center was a holy warrior much like the Holy Knights outside. Marius knew this armored man was the current Triarch, the leader of the Triumvirate, and the current head of the Sacred Dynasty. The man was clad in the same thick armor as all Holy Knights, this one made to look like it was formed from the scales of a dragon, but Marius suspected that the man likely didn’t hold to all the principles that bound most of those that dedicated their lives to the Divines as holy warriors.

The Triarch, seeing Marius’ approach, stood up from his throne and started to speak with a deep and authoritative voice. “Esteemed guests! If you had given us some warning about your arr…”

Marius didn't bother listening and flared his presence, the sheer weight of it pressing everyone except the silver-clad immortals on their knees to the ground. “Doesn’t matter. Introductions don’t matter either. I’m here for information, and considering an Emissary is dead, I won’t bother giving you the courtesy of waiting for you to explain and potentially lie to me. It’s much easier to just get the answers myself.”

Suddenly a large and complicated glyph depicting a large eye formed behind him, and streams of purple power rushed from the glyph into the head of the Triarch. Mind magic was always a difficult field, but Marius was an expert as his Totem was dedicated to the practice. That’s why he was often sent to clean up messes other people left behind. No one would be able to hide things from him, and he freely rifled through the memories and knowledge inside the kneeling monarch’s head.

He found what he was looking for rather quickly, but he studied the information and the person he’d gotten the information from carefully. He didn’t want to leave even the slightest chance that someone was trying to fool him with planted memories. Once he was satisfied, the tendrils of power leapt out from the Triarch and implanted into the heads of the two other members of the Triumvirate. They tried to struggle of course, but their might was insignificant in front of Marius. He quickly confirmed what he’d already found.

“All of them.” He pronounced in a cold voice. “The charge is not only the murder of an Emissary, but also heresy due to conspiring with the Underworld. The sentence for both is death.” The crime of killing an Emissary was bad, but it was child’s play in comparison to the other charge. The entire nation would be punished for that crime as a warning.

“Aye!” The two silver clad warriors got a grim look and bared their weapons, ready to execute those sentenced.

The Triarch managed to gather his wits long enough that suddenly an enormous formation that covered the entire palace sprung into existence. Clearly he’d made plans for the arrival of Marius. “Feeble struggle.” The man clad in luxurious robes made of materials only available to the denizens of the Divine Planes sniffed loudly, and suddenly it seemed like the grand formation just shattered. “Just because you managed to fight against someone who barely qualifies as an immortal, that doesn’t mean you should underestimate the Divine Planes and their agents.”

With a wave of his hand, Marius decapitated the Triarch and the two other members of the Triumvirate. The mage had not actually been aware of the heretical aspects of their actions but had joined in on the attack against the Emissary anyway. That alone was enough to seal her fate. As for the others…well, there were no innocents in the group that occupied this throne room as those who had opposed were either dead or part of the rebellion. When judging people outside this room though, Marius would have to be a bit more discerning about who was guilty and who was not. It was bad karma to kill innocents, even if you were a representative of the Divines.

The two immortals were efficient at their job. In less than a minute, all the high ranking and powerful people in the throne room were dead, and the whole place had been turned into a charnel house. This was one of the largest nations this world had, and the world was deemed powerful enough to warrant an Emissary's presence. The fact that the elites of the nation could be slain almost casually and in such a short time, seemingly without being able to offer proper resistance at that, spoke volumes of the power of the silver-clad soldiers. It helped that they could suppress the abilities of those weaker than them with just their presence.

“What of those outside?” One of the two asked Marius.

“Many of the Holy Knights took part in the fight, but they were mostly just following orders. They were not part of the greater crime. Those that fall under the sway of the scourges deserve no mercy. Those that take part in an ill-guided rebellion might be worth sparing depending on the individual. Yet they must still be punished. If they attack us, make no effort to spare them. If they do not, leave them be. I have other methods in mind.” Marius decided after a moment of consideration.

As they walked outside, they noted that the Holy Knights must have felt what had happened inside, but only a handful of them had been stupid enough to try and intervene. Those idiots now lay dead on the ground, splayed around the third silver-clad immortal as a warning. "Your rulers have been judged and found wanting. Next, I shall pass judgment on the rest of the city and the nation.” Marius declared in a calm voice that carried all over the palace.

The four immortals all flew towards the skies where the glowing form of Marius drew the attention of everyone still remaining within the capital city of the Holy Kingdom. He pointed at one of the immortals at random. “You. Go find the remaining members of the Sacred Dynasty. We shall pass judgment on them individually.” The Sacred Dynasty was not just the namesake of the entire nation, but also a family that ruled over it. Two of the three members of the Triumvirate had come from that family, and that alone placed the family under a bad light. The entire family might end up being removed if what Marius suspected was correct, but he had to make sure.

Then he gathered all his powers and a formation of divine power, much larger than the city itself, covered the skies. “Excommunicado!” He declared in a voice that was heard all over the city and pillars of golden power fell on and covered all the temples in the city. “Judgement of the Divines!”

The spell he had wrought left him exhausted and drained, and the two remaining immortals had to support him. “You actually called for the removal of blessings from all the Holy Knights in the nation?” One of them asked in slight surprise. That wasn’t something that was done lightly. “And you actually asked for every god to judge the people serving them personally?”

“Well, not personally. The Divines are busy enough as it is. They’re going to pass the responsibility off to some of their higher-ranking servants. Also not all Holy Knights. There were three temples that didn't have their members participate in this crime at all, so they were spared.” Marius explained between pained coughs. Drawing the attention of all the Divines whose temples were present in the city had left him completely dry of all his own powers.

“Which ones?” The other immortal in silver armor asked out of sheer curiosity. They were also waiting for Marius to recover a bit, so they might as well spend that time chatting.

“Well, one of them was the Temple of the Sacred Lady.” Marius lifted a finger.

“Makes sense. They don’t even have Holy Knights.” The curious immortal nodded. The Goddess that had become known as the Sacred Lady had been known as the Goddess of Mercy even before her death, and nowadays the faith worked very differently from all others, which was only natural seeing as they essentially worshipped a dead goddess and had done so for countless years. Even in the current day, the faith retained the aspect of mercy, and none of the adherents used offensive spells and dedicated their lives to helping those in need. That was one of the reasons the faith stayed alive and respected. It was surprisingly popular actually, as it drew in those who wanted to dedicate their lives to helping others.

“The second one was the Temple of Divines.” Marius lifted a second finger.

"Of course, the temple that serves all the Divines equally." The other immortal nodded as well. Nearly all Holy Knights started as members of this temple until they later on dedicated themselves to a particular Deity. The temple was also in charge of training most holy warriors, and thus held the largest number of Holy Knights, albeit most of them being trainees and those of low rank.

"The last one was the temple dedicated to the various Gods of Death." Marius lifted a third finger. "That one was both a surprise and not at all unexpected. The Death Gods have been acting weird for years now, and I expect they've given some orders to their temples as well." Usually, the Divine Planes held a major Divinity in charge of a large domain, like the God of Death, and then they had several lesser Divinities that ruled over a particular aspect of that domain, like the Goddess of the Souls, or the God of Plagues.

“So most of the Holy Knights of the nation just lost the source of their powers as they were all excommunicated? And the priests and other wielders of holy powers are currently undergoing an examination by the gods they serve on whether they get to keep theirs or not, right?” The first immortal that had started asking questions pushed for more information.

“In a nutshell, yes.” Marius nodded. “The Holy Knights can appeal their innocence to the gods they serve, but that’s going to take a long while, and not all of them will get their powers back. In fact, I suspect most of them won’t.”

“Considering this is a nation dedicated to faith, that means they just lost most of their war potential.” The immortal continued. “I can only imagine what happens next.”

“Yes, and the country is already in the middle of a rather problematic rebellion. Once we’ve dealt with the Sacred Dynasty, we’ll leave behind a decree. This world has four major powers left now that this place is about to fall. One of them will become the home of the new Emissary. The decree will state that whichever of the four powers gain control of this city will become the one to house the Emissary next. That shall be the punishment for this country.” Marius decided. The southern neighbor of this nation was the most obvious choice, but the Magocracy wasn’t exactly filled with fervent believers, and it was also fair to give the others the opportunity to compete for the attention of the Divine Planes.

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“This is crazy!” Duskclaw exclaimed. “We’ve always had peaceful relations with the Holy Kingdom, albeit slightly tenuous at times.”

Arjuna and she were standing on the deck of the 1st Fleet flagship as the fleet as well as two others prepared to Shift above the Holy Kingdom’s capital of Ashur. “And yet it must be done. Our forces have already moved across the border on all fronts. If we don’t, then others will. The armed forces of the dynasty were already in disarray before the decree, and now they are like headless chickens running around without any direction.”

“Does the High Council of Magisters believe we can just simply annex huge swathes of land like this? I don’t doubt that we have the military advantage, but taking the land and resources is different from holding them. The people were already rebelling against the dynasty, so what does the council think will happen when we take over?” Duskclaw argued.

“They have no illusions about this being a simple or easy endeavor. Our two countries are very different and friction will be inevitable. That said, it seems we’re facing a lot less opposition than expected. Many of the dynasty’s armies have simply surrendered when our forces showed up. In a religious country like theirs, being judged harshly by the heavens carries a lot of weight. And while our cultures clash in certain ways, at the very least they are familiar with how the Magocracy does things. They know we are tolerant of the cultures of our allies. The Aegean Empire? Not so much.” Arjuna explained the thinking of the council. He had personally voted against this action, but he didn’t completely disagree with the idea either.

“But why did we have to attack in the first place? The High Elven Court would’ve been unlikely to attack if we didn’t. They would’ve been too worried about leaving themselves open against the Aegean Empire, and that alone would’ve dampened the aggression of the Empire as well, as the problem would've been mutual. I don't think the Alliance of Saurian Kingdoms would've wanted to attack alone. Even in their weakened state, the armies of the Holy Kingdom aren't completely gone and the lizards would've been hard-pressed to deal with the remaining forces by themselves. Now that we've made the first move, the others will be forced to action. They can't allow us to just swallow the Holy Kingdom as a whole.” Duskclaw argued.

“That was an issue I also raised. We could’ve even supported the Holy Kingdom in forming a new interim government, perhaps from amongst the rebels, and their nation could've survived, even if diminished. Unfortunately, Ashanti didn't leave us with other options. He's been actively searching for areas to expand to, and he just got an easy target. We already got word from our sources that he ordered a full mobilization as soon as the word about the decree spread. The only reason we got a jump on them was because our forces were already on the border and because the Empire will have to deal with the logistic hurdle created by the distance.” Arjuna had been asked to lead the all-important assault they were now taking part in to make sure Ashanti wouldn’t be able to interfere.

Soon enough the remaining inhabitants of Ashur had to deal with another enormous magical formation appearing above their city. This time the formation didn't bring heavenly judgment, but it did bring three sizeable fleets of airships with the accompanying auxiliary forces. “Time to ask for their surrender. I hope they’ll agree and not put up a futile struggle.” Arjuna gave a deep sigh. Normally invading the capitol of another large nation would never be this easy, but the defenses of Ashur had been effectively neutered by the four people from the Divine Planes, as well as the defensive formations collapsing as the power supporting it had been withdrawn. The whole city was just waiting for someone to invade, and now the first invasion had arrived.