Aaron also used the raid to teach Alys how to use her Space Energy to detect hidden formations, understand and disrupt formations, and find and disrupt the energies fueling them.

"This is a Pleasure Honey-Trap Formation," he said to the slightly dazed Alys, who had just walked into it like a dumbass. "It makes you feel so good you just want more of it, enough to stand still despite any danger around. Its non-damaging nature can also trick the soul, preventing it from fighting its effects. The best way to deal with it is by shifting your outlook on life itself. Pleasure isn't always a good thing, it can get in the way of your goals. Free pleasure is always suspicious."

Unfortunately, she was lost enough in it she didn't hear any of his words, and he had to destroy the formation before teaching her the second-best way of dealing with it: not entering the damn formation. They were in enemy territory. She should protect herself at all times and be extra careful while moving around.

That was only one of the five formations she fell for. At least she learned the trick to detect hidden low-level formations after that. And though she would still need a couple of days of meditation to merge that detection trick with her long-range detection spell, it was an okay improvement for his standards.

The Temple of Darkness was a treasure trove of Darkness-attuned objects and materials. Some were also attuned to Holy Energy, and Aaron destroyed those. He wasn't about to walk around with items connected to the God of Darkness.

He took everything else. From rare herbs in an underground garden to Darkness-attuned metals in a small forge to ten thousand gold coins in a hidden treasury, he appropriated it all.

He was teaching Alys how to determine what kind of explosion one formation would trigger when there was a sudden shift in Lana's posture. She stood straighter, prouder. A hint of a smile appeared on her face. And when she looked at him with dilated pupils.

Her desire for him was obvious in the last cue, but the former meant she had found the resolve to do something. That was much better than the desperation that had been enveloping her ever since the goddess left her. She had shifted her outlook on life, and it greatly surprised and pleased him.

For Aaron had specific tastes in his women. Though he had decided to accept her feelings, that didn't mean he liked her. He only planned on having a temporary relationship with her to know her better. She would become a potential partner — and by that, he meant a wife candidate — but that's all.

Some would condemn him for being picky, but he found it fair that he could pick traits in a woman who would stay with him for hundreds of millions of years. Likewise, he saw nothing wrong in the women herself having criteria he had to meet for them to take him as their man.

Lana was a gorgeous woman, but beauty wasn't a deciding factor. Earth wisdom already said that it was ephemeral. That wasn't quite true for cultivators, who could easily change their appearance, but even extreme beauty became common enough after a long time and lost its value.

Not that he would ask Lana to turn ugly, of course. Though unnecessary, being beautiful was a plus. It was also good for most people's self-esteem, so nothing wrong with that.

But the truly attractive qualities to him were decisiveness, submission, and a bright outlook on life.

Decisiveness was a quality he admired from a practical standpoint. He had prized Alys' decisiveness before. In the life of a cultivator, being capable of taking swift decisions was important. That could be the difference between life and death, and he wanted his woman to stay with him for a long time.

Submission came next out of simple logic. He was undoubtedly the more experienced one in the relationship, and thus the one who was better equipped to make decisions.

He saw no problem in taking counsel, answering questions, and explaining himself the first few times he decided something on each subject. He would also take some important decisions together, like children's names, house location, and even how to spend money. Moreover, he would also delegate plenty of non-vital decisions to his wife if she wanted, like house décor, where to travel to, and when to house parties.

But it was another matter if his every decision was questioned, if she disregarded his opinion on important subjects, or if she did nothing to help. He had seen a female disciple get herself a nagging husband, and it had been pure hell for her. He had complained about everything she did for hundreds of millions of years. Thankfully, the idiot provoked someone he shouldn't have while out of her detection range and got himself killed. Aaron could've prevented that, but turned a blind eye to it. She never asked him if he had seen the killer either.

Anyway, lastly, a bright outlook on life was out of a personal taste. Life could be crushing at times, both physically, emotionally, and psychologically. Having someone by your side that looked on the bright side of things instead of the bad was sheer joy. He still remembered the beautiful smile on his third wife's face when he woke up after their first night together. The memory warmed his heart to this day.

Lana had shown her decisiveness and submission to the Goddess of Light when the latter ordered Lana to obey Aaron. Now, in listening intently and silently, she was starting to show that towards him. And if her shift in outlook was as big as he hoped for...

She might have a real chance with him after all.

As they climbed the temple's stairs after looting everything in it, Aaron heard a man yelling from outside the temple. He recognized the voice.

"The God of Darkness is evil, and all who follow him should be ashamed of themselves!" the man shouted. "The Goddess of Light is love, and all her followers are embraced by boundless grace! Repent and come to the Light! The Light will accept all heretics and convert them into good people under its endless warmth!"

Aaron found the temple's ground floor deserted. The god's statue was gone, together with any other valuable the place might have had. After destroying a couple of formations, he left.

Outside, he found the responsible for the shouts: Illyria's king, who was kneeling on the ground. His regal clothes were gone, replaced with a white linen tunic and a thin leather belt. He wore no shoes or jewelry.

Two men in white robes watched from the other side of the street. They were Two Star Light Devouts and probably Priests. Although it was early in the morning, the Temple of Darkness was located in the Imperial Road close to one of the city entrances, which had just opened, so the street was packed with workers both leaving and entering Illyria. They barely looked at the king, evidencing this was a common occurrence.

Aaron stopped in front of the kneeling man. "What is this?"

The king widened his eyes in surprise, barely believing the Herald of Light was coming out of a Temple of Darkness. He faltered for a moment, then replied, "Thank you for asking!" he yelled. "This allows me to tell everyone of my sins, so they may learn from my mistakes! I have sinned against—"

"Stop with the propaganda," Aaron interrupted, annoyed. "Give me the short version."

Again, the king froze, unsure of what to do. Then, he yelled, insisting on the bullshit, "It's my rightful punishment to tell everyone the full tale of my fall, and the love the Goddess of Light offered me! I have sinned—"

"I said stop!" Aaron barked with unhidden anger. "I'm not some random idiot asking you for information. I am the Herald of Light. If the Goddess of Light has punished you, she would surely understand if you interrupt such punishment for a few moments, just to talk to me like a human being."

The king trembled, looked furtively at the Devouts on the other side of the street, then just yelled again, "The Goddess of Light was merciful and only punished me with public humiliation and with vocalizing the error of their ways to the heretics of the Darkness! I am forever humbled and grateful—"

Aaron sighed and used a skill to shut the king up. The man seemed to be trying to tell him what was going on without offending the Priests, but Aaron wasn't one to allow others to yell at him like that.

The king's voice disappeared, and he looked even more scared than before. The Devouts frowned and stepped forward to cross the street. Aaron just turned his back on them and faced Alys instead.

"Do it," he ordered.

Alys nodded once, then faced the temple. A moment later, a thin spatial square appeared on top of it, followed by four walls that caged the temple within them.

Then the top square pressed down on the temple. Hard. And fast.

It was a beautiful sight of ordered destruction. The demolition was contained by the spatial walls, preventing dust and debris from spreading, so it looked like a car crusher on steroids. The top square went down into the floor and beyond, destroying the Temple of Darkness with ease, as all its protective formations had been destroyed beforehand.

There was a powerful explosion that shook the entire area when the temple's spatial distortion formation below was destroyed, followed by a few others as more formations suffered the same fate. Aaron hadn't destroyed those as it might have damaged the temple's foundations and end up with him buried.

Less than ten seconds later, the Temple of Darkness was no more. Only a square hole remained where it had once stood. That was a textbook presentation of the power of a Four Star Shaper.

Everyone in the street had stopped, looking both surprised and afraid at the spectacle they had just witnessed. Aaron smiled and turned to look at them.

"The God of Darkness has attacked me," he exclaimed, his voice clear because of the shocked silence. "It wasn't a misunderstanding or an attack by proxy. He possessed a Priestess and personally attacked me.

"Therefore, I, Aaron Ironblood, formally declare war between my Ironblood clan and the Temple of Darkness.

"When we see any Devout of Darkness, they will be given a single chance to abandon their heretic ways. Should they refuse, they shall be slain. When we see a Temple of Darkness, we shall raid then demolish it at once.

"This war will only stop when either the God of Darkness or the Ironblood clan perishes. We shall give them no quarter, we shall not parley, we shall not reconsider. This is an all-out war of extinction."

Astonishment spread throughout everybody present like a shockwave, just as Aaron wanted.

One doesn't topple the board by secretly killing a Priestess in a basement. People need to know you are uncontrollable. Everyone must second-guess themselves when it comes to you.

Aaron had planned on only declaring that he had been attacked. That would have messed things enough. The Priestess' possession had changed things though.

The God of Darkness himself had tried to take Aaron's life, and the latter couldn't have others thinking they could do the same with no consequence. He needed to make an example out of it. The destruction of the god's power base would do.

This war would help him make things even more chaotic. That, in turn, would allow him to more easily see where the pieces landed and identify who were the pawns, and who were the players.

It was risky; the Cage might consider him too uncontrollable to be left alive. Unfortunately, that was just one possibility, while failing to deal with the immediate danger would see him dead for sure. Surviving now took priority.

And who knows, if the Cage didn't kill him for it, he would also have learned that he could push its boundaries much more than he had initially thought.

"Oh, by the way," Aaron said, "I'm the local substitute for the Arcane Circle, and I investigated every single Devout of Darkness in this kingdom. I declare them enemies of the empire under my authority. That means the killings and destruction here, and in the future, are perfectly legal." There was no point in having political power if he didn't use it. He turned to the king next, lowering his voice to talk to the man. "There are no heretics here anymore. Instead of trying to convert a hole in the ground to the Light, why don't you take me to my new tower?"

Four days ago, he had given the king three days to rebuild the Arcane Tower. He expected things to move fast after his recent actions and declarations, so getting to the tower and improving its defenses was essential for Lana to survive. After he was done, the tower would become a perfect trap to those who would undoubtedly come after his people. He would also prepare another, more personal trap elsewhere.

The Devouts of the Light finally reached him, and they immediately countered his words. "Herald of Light, we apologize for interfering, but the High Priestess' orders were clear," one of them, a small man, said. He was respectful in his speech, but not submissive. "This sinner's penitence must be paid until he dies. If there are no heretics here, he must walk the streets and proclaim the Goddess of Light teachings to the whole city, on the hopes a follower of the God of Darkness hears it and converts."

Aaron gave them an unamused look. "Are there any rules against him taking the road to my tower while doing that?"

"No," the man replied. "The punishment's value will lower if the sinner can multitask while doing it, but I believe helping the Herald of Light to be an exception." His face showed obvious displeasure, but it wasn't big enough for him to make an issue out of Aaron's request.

Aaron gestured to the king as a butler asking a guest to enter the house. "You heard the man. Lead the way."

The king had seen many things in his life. Most of it was unimportant or inconsequential. Some things were impressive or inspiring. Few things were incredible or life-changing.

One of them, on his coronation day, had put the fear of the gods in him.

The Thenor Empire was the Capital of the Light of the World, and as such, all Monarchs had to be both approved by the emperor and anointed by a High Priestess. He was just the king of an unimportant border kingdom at a frontier that hadn't seen battle for hundreds of years. So, unlike the Ritual of Virtue that had turned him into a Protector of the Light, his crowning hadn't been important enough to have a High Priestess come to him. Instead, he had gone to the nearest satellite kingdom to be anointed there, and the Temple of Light had given him a very graphical warning.

They had brought three convicts to the plaza where his coronation had been taking place and had ordered him to mind control the first man with his brand-new Sovereign Scepter. He had to make the man offend the Goddess of Light.

The king obeyed, and three lightning bolts struck the man dead.

Then they had ordered him to force the second convict to say he doubted the existence of the God of Darkness.

The king obeyed, and six lightning bolts turned the man into charcoal.

Lastly, he had been told to make the third man state he was a god.

The king obeyed, and nine lightning bolts obliterated the man.

The skies had been bright blue with no visible cloud all the time.

The message had been clear: respect the gods. It didn't matter which god, all were above mere mortals, and even badmouthing them was enough to be harshly punished. Heresy would not be tolerated.

The king had stayed as far away from the gods' affairs as possible from then on. He naturally also feared a god more than even Aaron Ironblood. It didn't matter that his fear of Ironblood had been the final straw to push the king towards the goddess. Mortals and gods were simply on a different level.

So, after Aaron Ironblood destroyed a Temple of Darkness and declared war on a god, the king had no reaction other than to stare at that man in disbelief for a long time. He wondered if he was close enough to be killed by the lightning strikes that were sure to come soon to kill Ironblood.

Except, no lightning bolt came for a very long time, and the king felt lost.

Had the warning been a lie orchestrated by the Temple of Light?

Or was Aaron Ironblood just beyond the reach of the gods?

What in the seven hells was going on?!