For now, he turned to look at the newcomers. None of them had reacted at all to everything he had done. He went back to them and said, "We are at war, gentleman and women. That means we can get attacked at any time. I just got attacked. And you just watched with a smile on your face?"

Bymor's smile turned into a frown. "Attacked?"

"A Champion Devout of Darkness." Aaron chose not to show the Lesser Divine artifact to them, not now that he knew how religious fanatics the people in the empire were. Who knows what they would do if they saw it? "He teleported away, and I'm confident you could've prevented that. I had no time to tell you so and show you the target's location two miles away."

His frown deepened, but he said nothing. Aaron turned to Lun, the Champion Water Elementalist. "You could've done nothing against the kind of attack I received, so I won't hold it against you. But I did just appoint you my bodyguard. The next time, I expect you to be aware of the danger and at least try to protect me. And follow me when I'm running somewhere unless I tell you not to."

Lun looked slightly embarrassed. "As you wish."

Aaron shook his head slightly. The man was embarrassed for being called out, not for his failure. He would need training.

"I want everyone constantly aware of your surroundings," he continued. "Use whatever detection skills you know, and if you know none, learn one. I wasn't attacked by Timelords, but they are our enemies, and their domain over Time can make them appear where we least expect." He turned and resumed his journey to the king. "As I was saying, roles. I must approve all promotions, no matter how minor, until you, Bymor, know how I decide such things..."

He kept giving orders until they reached the king. There was no trouble there. After that, Bymor left to deal with the deacon, and Aaron led Jil to Lana. It was time to heal her.

Lana had to suppress the urge to bow when the High Priestess entered the bedroom. She was known for her strictness and haughtiness, though she was making an obvious effort to hide that side of her.

"I wasn't told the patient had been excommunicated," she said.

"I will be upfront with you, Jil," Aaron said. "I'm all about people being free to make their decisions. A doctor should be able to deny anyone treatment, despite how unethical and immoral that might be. But I'm also all about actions having consequences. If you dare refuse to heal her, you will have no place anywhere close to me."

"Are you..." Jil started talking with visible anger, then subdued her tone. "...threatening me?" Her voice was barely a whisper at the end, but still upset.

"No, I'm forewarning you," Aaron said. "You are under my rule in the crusade, and I have no use for useless subordinates. Fail to deliver her healing to me and I'll have you expelled from the crusade and this kingdom for life. And from anywhere else I come to rule, for that matter."

To Lana's surprise, the haughty High Priestess controlled her temper before saying, "I don't appreciate being talked to like that."

He was looking at her seriously. "And I don't appreciate my partner being denied treatment. Take it or leave it, Jil. I'll not change my mind on the subject."

Lana expected her to leave. Instead, the High Priestess looked at him in silence for a long time before turning to Lana. "Why were you excommunicated?"

Priests could feel excommunicated Priests if they had followed the same god. It was like feeling static in your soul. It was uncomfortable by design, for they were to be shunned by the God of Rule's decree.

"That doesn't matter," Aaron interjected. "This is your last chance. Heal her or don't. Choose. Now."

Lana was further astonished when the High Priestess started thinking deeply. She barely believed when the High Priestess started chanting.

"Light of love, Light of healing, Light of beauty. The Light that pierces the veil of darkness to reveal its dreadfulness is the same that embraces the needy and the ugly. The Goddess of Light cares only for what lays in the depths of souls, but mortals are beings of preconception and judgment. Unwise it might be, but merciful she is, and such mercy is now bestowed upon you. May your beauty be restored, may your dreams be realized. Fifth Grade Holy Skill: Growth and Care."

Holy Energy evolved Lana. It was warm, and she could almost feel pure parental love from the goddess in it. It gently entered her body and healed all her injuries slowly. The healing itself felt like cold jelly being spread on the damaged area.

Some hidden injury on her spine was healed first, together with other minor internal injuries the Physician hadn't detected. Her heart was next, followed by, finally, her face. It felt ice cold for a while, and she felt her broken bones get set straight and even regrow in some places, then perfectly meld together. Her skin followed, and soon enough, she was her former self.

Then the skill checked her subconscious for changes she wanted on her body. She refused it. Though she would love to change some parts of her — anyone would — she believed it to be too artificial. She wanted people to praise her natural beauty, not the mere byproduct of a skill.

She thought that would be it, but after her refusal, the skill entered her soul and healed her mind. It was painful. She held her head and grunted in agony. But the pain was gone as soon as it had come.

As the ache disappeared, memories came back to her. She remembered everything the goddess had erased from her mind when she had leveled up the last time.

She looked at Aaron wide-eyed and said, "Oh my goddess. Oh. My. Goddess."

Aaron raised an eyebrow. "What happened?"

"The Goddess of Light played you," Lana said. "She played us all. A Herald of Light is so much more than you know, yet so much less. Patriar— I mean, Aaron, you can command everything. Everything. Say the word and the Temple of Light will follow. Suggest it, and the Arcane Circle will be yours. But you are also hers now. She can force you to do anything regardless of your will or even knowledge. She might be controlling you right now with us none the wise." The shock turned into sadness, which then became regret she showed by tearing up. "I'm sorry. Oh, goddess, I'm so sorry."

"Well done," Aaron told the High Priestess instead. "Would you please excuse us?"

The High Priestess nodded, still upset at being forced to heal Lana, and left the room. Only then did Aaron smile. "I would like to see her try to control me. Trust me on this one, Lana. The one thing I'm confident about is the strength of my heart. I am me, and I would notice any attempt to control me."

"But—" she started.

"No buts," he said firmly, his voice cutting through her anxiety like a knife. "Even if she was controlling me, what could we do but keep going as if she weren't? Don't think about that." He sat on the bed. "Think about this." He kissed her.

She obliged him, and her worries were drowned in an ocean of delight.

Aaron took Lana back to Alys Tower, which had been completely rebuilt.

The Arcane Circle had set up some tents in front of it, but none bothered him as he entered the tower. The Builder and Alys were nowhere to be seen. Lastly, Tom, the mechanic engineer, was already building a trapdoor on the top floor.

He was crouched in an uncomfortable position, meddling with one of the stairs' opening. The trapdoor itself — a heavy, bulky piece of metal — a lot of springs and metal parts, and all kinds of tools lay on the floor beside him. His eyes lit up when he saw Aaron.

"Herald! I need your exalted guidance." The short man said while standing up. "I always add magically adherent materials to high-end doors to keep them in place, but the blueprint you gave me says they won't work on this place. I could add some locks instead, but they wouldn't be safe without a solid foundation to keep it in place. My best idea is to add some metal pillars around the opening and make the locks use them. Would this stone support that kind of pressure?"

"Give me a second," Aaron replied, then took metal bars from his ring and used his Arcane Energy to coat the floor again, as it had been before the explosion. Next, he inscribed the Physical Horizon formation on the metal. Alys would only need to kindle them now. Everything took less than half an hour. "There you go. Just steer clear from any inscription."

"Yes, thank you," the man said and went back to his work at once. Aaron appreciated his work ethic.

The former Immortal walked to the most isolated corner of the top floor and said to Lana, "I must check something. Shake me if you detect any danger." He sat there, took the Divine artifact from his ring, sat down, and pushed his mind into it.

Inside the artifact, he found the same layered spheres as before. There were nine layers in total. The outer layer was half the size of Alys Tower. The innermost sphere was the size of a head.

He had glanced at them before, but this time, he analyzed the formations on the metal spheres thoroughly. They were fueled by Holy Energy of a kind he hadn't felt before. It felt close to the Laws of Space and Fire, but not exactly; it reminded him of the feeling of a forge. Smith Holy Energy, maybe? Whatever it was, it felt even more powerful than the Sage level should be.

It was no surprise that a level above Sage existed. There were nine levels known to the public, yet he had ten points to his mind attribute. It would be strange if only his mind could reach the peak of that world.

He had been expecting the tenth level to be straight up Divine Energy though, as that would fit the thresholds of his home dimension. Instead, tenth-level Holy Energy felt like distorted Spiritual Energy mixed with hints of Divine Energy. Aaron concluded that whoever had built the system had gone to great lengths to keep the gods from straight-up cultivating Divine Energy.

For the first time, he also understood the similarity in the energy names. Some would see it as a way to say Holy Energy was no inferior to Divine Energy. He saw it as a mockery.

The lack of Divine Energy didn't explain where the Divine skill which had targeted him had come from, but the spheres did.

The formation on each sphere didn't interact with each other. That was no surprise either. Nine layers of formations of that size interacting with each other would be a task few people could achieve. Even Aaron would have to spend a few hundred years working on something like that. Instead, each layer had a specific job.

The outermost layer had a single function: pull energy around the artifact inside itself. It didn't discriminate, any energy would do. It went to extra lengths to take the energy from a vast area to prevent energy-starvation around the artifact.

The following layers refined that energy and pushed them to the next layer until the energy inside the innermost sphere became tenth-level "Smith" Holy Energy. The waste was humongous; it would take hundreds of years for a few particles of high-level Holy Energy to be produced. And in the innermost layer, Aaron found metal dust, showing there had been something else there not long ago, but it had been utterly destroyed.

The pitch-black dust reminded him of Arcane crystals that had been spent to fuel a formation. He guessed what happened easily enough: there had been extra formations there to transform the Holy Energy into Divine Energy, then use that energy in a skill. However, the material used wasn't strong enough to withstand the power of Divine Energy. Whether by design — to avoid people checking it out — or because the gods also had no access to superior resources, he didn't know.

Aaron sighed in his mind. The thing was useless to him. He had hoped to uncover some of the system's secrets by analyzing the enchantment responsible for the skill that had targeted him, but he only got a hint on how the highest-level energy of that world worked.

He took his mind off the artifact and stored it away. Then he smiled at Lana. "I must leave to cultivate."

"I wanna go," she said at once, her hopeful green eyes like those of Tatou, which she held in her arms.

He shook his head. "It's too dangerous."

"But I want to see your training again! I felt the Mouth-Man's Time Energy! I think I may be able to cultivate it!" She sounded both excited and fearful at the same time. She wanted to cultivate it but feared failure.

He smiled. "Let's make a deal. It's too dangerous for you to leave this tower, and the following days will be busy for me. I'll teach you a bit about Time cultivation when the crusade starts its march two days from now."

She pouted but nodded. He patted her head and left.

Almost everything was set already. There were only three things he needed to do before leaving: cultivating, obviously; checking on Alys' mental health progress; and starting the construction on the three city areas the king would gift him.

He could hear the drums of war already.