Aaron first turned to Bella. "You dumb, greedy mongrel." His voice was filled with icy fury. "You're not strong enough to absorb the essence of a Champion beast! If you had made some effort to protect everyone in here, I would have rewarded you. But now, you'll be lucky to survive, and I'll do nothing to help you survive or resist the incoming pain."

The pup had used Divine Energy to take some of the Mouth-Man's essence into his blood, which it was now licking. Anyone could grow faster that way, but it was frowned upon because it weakened the donor permanently. It also came with significant risks to the consumer, which the beast was obviously ignorant of, considering how stupid it was being.

The panther's reply was to lick the blood of its pawn, looking defiantly into his eyes. He ignored it. It would learn its lesson soon enough.

After berating Bella, he used his elusive steps to get to Lana, then princess-carried her with all the caution in the world, taking extra care not to mess with her neck. She bled all the way to the stairs. He laid her gently on the ground of the fifth floor and used a skill.

Vital Healing Arts: Restoration!

Two Star Vital Energy wasn't enough to heal her fully. Hell, it couldn't even mend bone, her spine would keep being in danger of snapping completely. He had to make the most of it to merely get her heart to beat stably. His workaround for her spine was to strengthen the surrounding flesh so it was a bit safer.

Her vocal cords were completely gone, together with the almost absolute destruction of her entire throat. He could do nothing on that front either, only heal the area in a way that made her a mute. It was that or risk infection.

He also healed the damage on her skin, and that was something he could do well at least. Her face was kept caved in a terrible, unnatural way, but her brain was untouched. She would survive, and that's all that mattered.

Aaron went back to the sixth floor and took Tatou, the king, and Alys down. He just ignored the panther, but it was smart enough to follow him. Then he recovered what remained of the Mouth-Man's corpse, together with an exquisite axe, and stored them in his ring. Finally, he made them all float — except Bella — and started going down.

When he arrived at the third floor, the malfunctioning formation exploded. The power of the explosion was enough to destroy the nearby formations too, which started a chain reaction of enormous proportions.

The entire tower shook as the top two floors were annihilated from existence. The shockwave hit all nearby buildings and toppled a few of them with relative ease. All their windows shattered. For a few minutes, the night was illuminated by the huge flames of the explosion. It was so large that it made the tower look like a giant torch.

Aaron protected Lana from the shaking with a simple arcane spell and waited for it to pass. Meanwhile, he also stabilized the king's vitals and healed Alys' skin. Some of her hair would need a potion to regrow. Once the explosion was gone, he resumed taking them all to the first floor.

Alys had recovered from her shock by then. Her mind was getting calloused, a sad advantage to have. Either way, she was awake and stable.

It was a good thing for the panther too because Alys grabbed the beast the moment it started hitting head on the ground. Its soul had rejected the Mouth-Man's essence, and its body was now convulsing in an attempt to expel the consumed blood by any means. The beast was also bleeding from all its apertures.

"Patriarch! Something is wrong with Bella!"

Aaron nodded. "Good. I hope she dies. The only reason I don't kill her myself is out of consideration for your feelings." Alys opened her mouth to question it, but he beat her to it. "You have a book explaining the obligation of tamed beasts to the clan, and unless I'm sorely mistaken, she didn't fulfill it. If she survives, you'll be punished for not training her well. But we'll deal with that later. Tell me everything that happened."

She did it while holding doing her best to comfort the beast. She probed Bella with Arcane Energy, but couldn't find anything wrong with her small experience in soul analysis. Aaron listened attentively while ignoring the beast's suffering, then deliberated on what to do.

Someone in the Thenor Empire had targeted him, and he had the corpses of the attackers to prove it. The issue was that he didn't know who in the empire had sent the soldiers, and he also didn't have a way to find out, not until his Arcane Energy was at the Grandmaster level and he could use it to read dead people's brains. By then, this episode would likely be long over.

For now, declaring war on the empire itself, or on an entire garrison, wouldn't be a smart move. He would likely survive, but they had the numbers to threaten his people. Even now, a garrison comprising one thousand Three Star cultivators were camping on Illyria. They had attacked him from the shadows, but escalating it to a full-out war could only end with his clan's loss.

Declaring war against the God of Darkness might have looked crazy, but it was also a test of sorts. He was the Herald of Light and had pushed the boundaries to see how the Temple of Light would react. Now that he had read their rulebook, he knew those boundaries were basically nonexistent.

In the past, the goddess had used to appoint people as Blessed of Light. They were almost the living avatar of the Goddess of Light. One of them ended up getting killed though, and their death had weakened her for a long time. It had also caused the greatest setback in the empire's history.

After that episode, the goddess divided her blessing into three people.

The first was the Apostle of Light, always a female, responsible for leading the Temple of Light. She was the living embodiment of the will of the goddess, the closest one to the Blessed of Light of old. Her word became law whenever she spoke, for it came from the goddess herself. However, she usually only dealt with her clergy and religious matters.

She was the spiritual hand of the goddess.

The second was the Guardian of the Light of the World, always a male, responsible for protecting the Temple of Light. He protected it politically by dabbling in Imperial Court politics and physical by commanding the Templar Knights defensively. It was also to improve his political power that he ruled over the Arcane Circle; it gave him greater sway over the empire.

He was the shield of the goddess.

And the third was Herald of Light, who could be either male or female. They ruled over the Templar Knights, to whom their word was law, even above that of the apostle or guardian themselves.

The Goddess of Light was love and grace, her punishments light ones even when her laws demanded death, just as she had recently done to the king. Sometimes, however, an unforgivable line was crossed. Thus, a Herald of Light was appointed.

They were the sword of the goddess.

A Herald of Light wasn't always around; the last one had been appointed three hundred years ago. But when they came, they did so to deliver rightful divine punishment upon the heretics whose offense was inexcusable. Whenever they walked the world, the earth was dyed red with heathen blood.

Aaron had miscalculated how much actual power the Goddess of Light had given him. The rules he had found should have been known by Lana though, so she should be able to tell him about it. She hadn't. Why? And why was the goddess helping him that much? He would have to investigate it later.

The Templar Knight's being under his authority explained why the Temple of Light had attacked the Guardian Sword clan. He had declared them his enemy, and his word was law to the templars. He wondered about his declaration of war against the God of Darkness. Were there templars hunting for Devouts of Darkness right now? He had been extra careful by declaring war only between his clan and the God of Darkness, but he would need to ask to know.

More importantly, the rules said one thing, but was that reflected in reality? If he ordered the Templar Knights to attack the garrison, would they obey? Aaron had no idea. They were all denizens of the empire. Who knew what they would do if he started an effective civil war? He didn't know their politics enough, and losing their support while he was already at war against the Temple of Darkness would be too dangerous for his clanswomen.

He concluded the best arrangement would be for him to take the Garrison Commander's attack personally, then command the templars to investigate it but refrain from attacking anyone. That would be enough to kickstart a propaganda war against the empire within the templars, and maybe within the Temple of Light too.

To achieve that, he wouldn't accuse anyone, only state facts and ask for clarification. That would give him the moral high ground. He had gotten attacked but didn't retaliate; instead, he started an investigation. It would be a nice narrative to pursue and should make some people side with him. He would then see how it was received and adapt his approach.

For if he had a new force under his command, he needed to make it his as soon as possible.

As for the Mouth-Men? Aaron knew exactly how to deal with them, in a way that would also help the templars see him as a worthy leader.

He even had the perfect audience prepared for him. A few hundred cultivators had come to investigate the explosion and were now surrounding the tower. They would help spread the word.

He reached the first floor and took the time to wake the king up. Leaving magically carrying the man unconscious would send the wrong message. Not as wrong as killing him, of course, which was a real possibility depending on his next actions. The man had some explaining to make.

"We won?" the king asked, then looked at his stump. Aaron couldn't see the king's face through the helmet, but his active perception showed the man was shocked.

Aaron wasn't about to waste time comforting someone he might dispose of the very next second though. "You are a Four Star Psion. Connect your mind to mine and open it bare for me for the duration of the answer of a single question: did you know the Mouth-Men were coming for you when you came to this tower and thus endangered my people?"

The king paled. He opened his mouth to say something but ended up closing it and obeying Aaron.

Aaron felt the connection to his mind much like the Psychotic Pigs had tried to do, but this time he allowed it to go through his mental defenses. Once both minds connected, he could feel the king's feeble willpower. It was so weak that Aaron could completely hijack the link to read the king's entire mind, maybe even control of the man to some extent.

"I..." The king took a deep breath. "I expected the Timelords to come. Eventually. Not now, not today. I only came to deliver you some imperial documents and nothing els—" He realized he was about to lie and changed his narrative. "And to try to get you to protect my kingdom from the Imperial Purge for a cheap price. I planned on... reinforcing a specific narrative so you would feel targeted."

While the king spoke, memories related to it came to the surface of his mind and it was easy for Aaron to pick them up and determine their veracity without reading other memories. Indeed, the king was telling the truth.

Aaron cut the connection with a bit of Qi and said, "You unknowingly put my people in danger, with is a minor offense. However, Alys told me what you did today. You used your own life to protect hers. That is a great merit." Rewarding people who did such things was a great way to have outsiders do their best for his clan. He paused while looking at the king. "So, you want me to protect your kingdom? I'll give it to you. You just need to join the movement I'm about to found."

He led them outside, physically carrying Lana when they went through the doors, which were under the influence of the formations. On the outside, he found people from most groups with some importance in the kingdom.

They had been looking at the still impaled heads at the entrance of his tower, but they all stared at him as soon as he stepped out. Most of them were at the Two Star level, with about ten at the Three Star and even a couple at the Four Star. Illyria's elite had come to see what the commotion was about.

Aaron's attention went to the three Devouts of Light wearing white plate armor from head to toe, surrounding a Four Star Devout of Light who wore Priest robes. He should be the local deacon.

"Templar Knights, heed my orders!" Aaron bellowed and took the Garrison Commander's upper half corpse from his ring. He stripped it of all its possessions and threw it on the ground. "A Garrison Commander of the Thenor Empire has attacked me! Investigate it thoroughly! But you are not to seek retribution! We will punish the guilty only once we have enough evidence! I, the Herald of Light, order so at once!"

Everyone was shocked by the announcement. The three armored people approached, removed their helmets — showing young faces, no more than thirty — put a knee to the ground, and bowed their heads before him. They said nothing, for it wasn't their place to talk to him before he acknowledged their presence, no matter if he had given them orders from a distance.

He looked at them. "But it saddens me to have even graver news to share with you today." He took the corpse of the Mouth-Man he had beheaded from his ring, took his valuables off, and made it float. "This is a Champion Timelord. Three of them attacked me today. It is one thing for the Capital of the Light of the World to have a minor internal misunderstanding, but for outsiders to dare to encroach on the land of Light?! For too long has the Temple of Light kept silent, and the heathens no longer fear us. It's time for the world to remember once again the power of the Light!"

The king's memories told him the Timelords were a group of powerful Mouth-Men that the empire hated but had never managed to conquer or destroy. They even had a nation to call theirs, with human subjects and all.

Aaron created a light dome around him, cleaned himself, swapped his clothes for white robes, then let the dome fade. He was now with his hands behind his back, with a dignified look to himself.

"I, the Herald of Light, thereby declare a Holy Crusade against the Timelords. We will not stop until every single one of them is exterminated. They have sinned against me, and the penalty for that is death!" He turned to the king. "Will you give your kingdom to the Light?"

The man didn't even blink before awkwardly taking his helmet off with a single hand. Then he got to one knee.

"Gladly, o Herald of Light!" He was having a hard time hiding his joy. "May the banner of the Holy Crusade spread the glory of the Goddess of Light throughout the world."

"Then let it be known that the Kingdom of Illyria is now the base of the Holy Crusade. The forces of Light are to rendezvous here at once!" That effectively made Illirya immune to political and military moves. The king had gotten what he wanted.

All Devouts of Light present kneeled at once, followed by common followers of the goddess. A few of the weaker people got caught in the mood and kneeled too, and the others felt too awkward to keep standing.

Soon, everyone was kneeling, except the local deacon, for he had something to do. He extended both hands at Aaron and said, "The Light gives comfort to the just, but it also reveals the hidden sins of the evil. The time has come. Weep, children of the Light, for our goddess wrath is upon the world. May the fires of the Holy Crusade cleanse the sins of our enemies."

It was the middle of the night, but a pillar of light descended skies and fell upon Aaron, bathing him in holy light.

In the heavens, a gigantic sword with wings appeared behind the pillar.

The Third Holy Crusade of the Light had been begun.