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Chapter 504: The Surrounded Guest Palace

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High risk and high return; isn’t this what she had always wanted? But after knowing the truth, she found out that she was actually trembling out of fear for some reason.

But….

It only took her a few moments before a look of resolve flashed on her face.

“It’s alright. I am still willing.” She declared.

“Heh... you are brave.” Siva was honestly amused.

Julian had no idea that as of this moment, she was about to undergo a mission bigger than anything she had ever been to in her contracts in the past.

“Okay then, if you’re really this determined, then I will ask you a few questions as well as request for you to… take a flight and live on another country.”

—are you willing?

Siva didn’t voice out this question and instead let her put the thought into consideration herself.

After a few moments of deliberation, she nodded at him, “Alright. Give me the instructions.”

Siva was actually surprised.

He didn’t expect for her to actually agree to it.

“Why are you… you know, you are a woman and you are going to live on a dorm. Although you are the first to live there, I am planning on sending a few of my people there as well. Are you willing to live in a place with men?”

A devious look flashed on her face, “Are they at least cute men?”

Siva paused and thought of the face of the Martial Artist Kanzu that he defeated and nodded.

“One of them at least.” He professed.

Julian giggled and answered, “Then I am willing.”

“…”

For some reason, one of his problems are solved in a manner he least expected.

Thus, Siva didn’t waste time and took her info and arrange a flight and pocket money for her. After he sent her enough money to buy a few things, he also sent Cortana’s bugs to infiltrate her home.

After finding out that she was clean, she sent the money as her advance payment and gave her the plane-ticket reference number.

Her scheduled move to her new life happened as fast as she was breathing.

Lastly, Siva made her swear a Heavenly Oath that pertained to keeping secrets and only following orders that came from him or someone he had authorized to.

She was surprised about the thunder that follows after the oath was taken but aside from that, she’s still calmly awaiting her next command.

“Since we’re already here, I will expect many great things from you.”

“I will do my best boss!”

“And don’t brag about any of this to anyone else!”

“I know boss, what spy would expose herself with something as stupid as posting about it on FB?”

“Hoh? Then why are you smiling like a cheshire?”

“I’m just excited!”

“…”

“Can I take a pict—”

“——YOU’RE FIRED!!!”

“Noooo!!! I was just kidding!!”

“Uuuuuuuuuuurrrrggghhhh……..”

Jokes aside, Siva did indeed made sure that the girl wouldn’t commit any stupid mistakes on her tasks so he gave her more instructions. Only then did he provided her a few helpful equipment, 100 Liberty Drones to be scattered all around Dakar, and finally taught her how to get a Unique Ability for herself.

She chose a Supporting Unique Ability from the full MANA / ENERGY stats build called «Quartet» that allowed her to cast any ability or spell four times, ignoring slots for the [Magic Spells] in her (Junctioned) Ability Panel Window.

(AN: 15 accessory slots, 15 possible abilities or magic spells, but when joining two or more of the talismans in those slots, the resulting [effect] and/ or the process itself is then called the [Junctioned Ability/Spell]; this is further narrated in Volume 1, 2, and 3 and further elaborated in Vol.7ch.075, 076, and 077 )

This entire interview session lasted 30 minutes.

When everything was done and only when Siva was satisfied with everything here did he left Tai Long with her to help her retrieve all of her items outside of Dakar… in the desert.

After that, with a single step, he returned to that temporary lodging in the Inner Continents.

When he appeared, the scans showed that there are people outside of his room waiting for him to appear.

[Sir, there are things that happened while you are in the interview with Julian.]

“I think I saw you give a notif earlier. What’s it all about then?”

Siva was immediately prompted by Cortana when he appeared. Cortana didn’t disturb his focus on the interview and only gave him a notification pop up window with the information about the event on this side of the planet earlier.

[I’ll display the information we gathered.]

A pop up window appeared on Siva’s vision. It had a written report regarding the ‘event’ that went on while he was away from the last 30 minutes.

*****

The improved version of his Absolute Domain was just too grand and he loved the unrestricted-ness of it all. after skimming through the report and also listening to Cortana summarize the ‘event’, he gave a nod of understanding and made a sigh.

He now have a general gist of the events.

Fixing himself, he unlocked the space in the room with a flip of his palm and opened the door to greet the Vajras wearing frowning expressions.

Siva perceived the worry in their eyes and asked Mohindra who was in front of him.

“What happened?”

Although he already knew the gist of it, there are still a few things different when he hears the report from the person he actually left the job for.

“It’s the Terran.” She said biting her lip. “It would seem that your guess is correct. He appears to be already planning to threaten you or even attack.”

They are already currently at the capital of the Bardavon Kingdom and that the place where they are staying at was a palace arranged by Joffrey.

After the event in the Port City, they didn’t waste any more time to entertain Siva’s request to get a tour of the city and immediately proceeded with the arranged meeting. During this time, while King Joffrey arranged the venue and all the attendees’ conference calls, Siva and the Vajras stayed at a palace for their temporary lodging.

With the events in the Port City, Siva trusted that because Joffrey realized that he killed Ashbin and the other guy who laughed at him in the welcome party, he would really order his warship fleets to surround him on all sides.

If the information he has doesn’t match with this kind of urgency he’s been stressing about, even if it angers the Elves, King Joffrey of the Kingdom of Bardavon will have to demand justice for Siva killing one of his royal subjects… and if he could control his pride, the best thing that will happen to Siva is being taken into custody and not being put into the direct line of fire of a cannon.

There are a lot of things that may happen after he get him into custody but Siva still didn’t move and only gave Mohindra a Liberty Drone and used it to listen to the vicinity of the Main Castle, 1km away from their guest palace.

Who would have thought that Joffrey would be so impatient at this point?

Before he went to interview Julian, he was already doubtful of Joffrey but it would seem that he was just prideful as a man and as a King altogether.

“What an idiot.” He sighed. “Did he really think I am so easy to threaten? But let’s still give him a chance. Perhaps he’s giving out those orders for a mobilization for a different purpose.”

Mohindra stayed silent.

After a while, Siva faced Linda, “At this time, I’ll be relying on your skills. Please inform Joffrey that the matter cannot be delayed any further. We have to conduct the meeting as soon as we can. I am busy as well.”

Siva still had to attack the Blue Card Legion that’s based in Mundus and right now, the Enchantment Temples of the Surface Continents are already in a state of frenzy, gathering their numbers at the Walled City of Nevada, in the Southern Continent of Heartilia —nicknamed Southern Isles.

“Leave it to me.” Linda cheerfully replied and left with two Vajra Guards and Siva’s [Destroyer], one of the Four Persona BM-Puppets, as protector.

She didn’t question who the 2.2m tall big guy was but from its presence and the two buster swords at his back, she perceived the guy as very strong.

Only Mohindra knew what [The Destroyer] was.

She gave Linda a final look before the girl turned to another corner and then faced Siva who sat on a chair in the middle of the room. Mohindra then stood behind him, waiting.

After a few minutes, Linda came back with a very worried look on her face.

Siva, however, already knew why.

Because above the guest palace, the fifty warship fleet from before had already formed into a tight offensive formation. Even the Cyclones hovered in the air with their Vulcan Cannons monitoring all and every movements happening in the palace.

And all around the vicinity, hundreds of thousands of soldiers —both melee and range attackers— in their Guardian Army Uniforms, were already on a guard formation, wary of Siva since they’ve all seen what he can do back in Maria and all the past events in the surface continents.

“So? What did he say?” Siva prompted.

Whether it’s luck or not, the conference room in the Main Castle 1km away was already protected by a Barrier Magic of the 5th-Tier. Cortana’s scan can’t pass through it. Not even on a Tier-4 spell.

It would seem that Joffrey wasn’t an idiot as well as to let information leak out of the conference room they’d be using.

Siva didn’t care much though but he was curious as to what Joffrey’s decision was.

“They are ready.” Linda said. “But outside…”

Siva raised a hand. “It’s okay. I know there are at least 50 warships outside waiting for us to commit a mistake so they can have the reason to fire their readied cannons at us.”

Linda shut her lips and only looked at her mother with obvious fear in her eyes.

After all, cannons are deadly even to Chaos God-level existences like them. Of the Vajras, it’s only Mohindra, the Guard Captain, and the very few veteran Vajras are complete “Elemental Dragons” that could withstand an attack from a Bloodymary Cannon. Warships may have advantages and also disadvantages fighting against personnel, but the disadvantages are covered by the fact that just a single artillery shell hitting them, even if they are Gods, they’d still get wounded and eventually get overwhelmed and ultimately perish under their direct continued assaults.

But there aren’t just warships there as well. Even Siva had to be careful of being overwhelmed by a horde of hundreds of thousands of enemies.

If he stays at a single spot for even just a blink of an eye, a random cannon shell would break his momentum. Considering there are 50 warships in there with twenty or so cannons on each of them, one could only imagine just how much saturation fire they could give in an area.

Siva was positive that before he could even hide in the Mini Realm, a hundred or so cannon shells would have already hit him.

—and that is “if” he was actually alone right now.

There are also the Vajras and although they can travel 500m every second, a cannon shell’s speed is still many times faster than that. Multiply that by hundreds of cannons, one volley is enough for all of these Vajras to die before, no, with him.

As such, as much as he can, he would have to act like a culture guy at least only until his business in this place was finished.

Seeing his relaxed state, Linda couldn’t help but doubt if he was crazy or he was just confident.

“Let’s go. Our host is waiting.”

As he spoke, Siva stood up and with a flip of his hand, the Vajras, the mother and daughter pair, and he himself disappeared from the palace for guests and instantly appeared inside the waiting room assigned for them… twenty steps and just a door away from the actual conference room.

“This is…” Linda was very shocked. “This is the waiting room just outside the conference room!”

She knew this place because it’s not her first time being in this room that’s only a few steps adjacent to the conference room on their right side.

The other Vajras are surprised and Mohindra was not an exception. Who would’ve thought that Siva could teleport them away like this?!! It was one thing to do it himself but it is another when other people are involved in the story.

Linda, all the more, was quite surprised. Is this the reason why he was confident earlier?

But when looking at Siva, his face showed as if he had just seen a ghost, or he was just looking at an unbelievable sight right in front of him.

When he noticed the stares, Siva coughed once and then sighed… heavily.

“I know what you’re all thinking. This is indeed my ability but… it’s not as if it doesn’t have a price. It is my first time teleporting other people and I am also shocked to discover about this price.”

Indeed it has a price.

Teleporting by himself doesn’t have a price for he was the owner of the ability but when “teleporting” other people through the Central Station Mini Realm, the “gate” Mini Realm he used to pass through was used up and all slots in it were all destroyed, making the Mini Realm disposable, regardless of how much slots was still inside.

“I’m actually just trying to experiment but I didn’t know that although it worked, it has this kind of price. And I have at least 50,000slots in that one as well… what a waste.”

Good thing, he now had an abundant supply of Mini Realm because not only can he create them out of thin air using the [Slit Dimension Ability], it also had slots automatically allocated in it.

The only problem is, he found out, that the slots inside the Mini Realm cannot be edited. Meaning, when he pull out a Mini Realm —split a dimension from Terroa’s dimensional base— the percentage of how much slot it contains is fixed and he gets where the unlocked stage it is currently.

Siva made a sigh but didn’t get too much emotive over it and faced the group.

Thinking over something else, he ordered them to wait there in place, locking the room, and then he disappeared.

“I need to do something.” He said and took a step but stopped and then turned to the Escort Leader and two more, “Mohindra, can I borrow them for just a few minutes?”

“Eh? You… y-yes, you can…”

“Thanks. We’ll be back in a bit. Let’s go.” He didn’t let the three say another word and took a step and at the next instant, vanished from their sights.

Everybody was still reeling in surprise with their sudden teleportation and couldn’t react in time before they saw Siva vanished.

“Where’s he going?” Linda asked her mom but Mohindra only smiled wryly. Even she, as Siva’s right hand person for the Vajras, wasn’t aware of what Siva wanted to do for she learnt from Gaia that Siva, at times, or more often than not, was a free wind that blows everywhere, almost without directionless and unpredictable, but had one clear and noticeable purpose in his every action.

Siva wouldn’t do something meaningless and thou he might disappear at times, one could trust that it was all always for the sake of his plans.

As such, Mohindra trusted that Siva was going to do something important so he left in a hurry.

She didn’t answer Linda but told her to wait.

It was around 15minutes later that Siva and the three people he borrowed from the Escort Team appeared again. But this time, the three were in a slightly “jolted” condition, as if they had just gone on a fight, while Siva was wearing a different set of clothes: the slim-armour made of Nano-Metals and Fire Dragon Materials, with the remains of his ‘fire domain’ still lingering around him.

It was the complete Fire Lord Set.

Based on their unhurried breathing but tense air, they seem to have faced a fight but won normally without very much struggles.

His face was still covered by the faceless mask but this time, it wasn’t a plain white mask but a vivid fire red mask that’s almost the color of blood.

“Did you finish it?”

Mohindra’s question made Siva look at her, nod, and then let out a sigh. She didn’t question the three borrowed members of the Escort Team who came back looking as if they’ve just been into a lightly moderate fight as they heaved a long sigh.

“We had to fight monsters on our way back so we looked like this. But I did finish what I’ve set out to do so and already compensated the three of them so you don’t have to do anything.”

After he spoke, he drank a Blue Potion.

Seeing this made Mohindra surprised, “Didn’t you say that your curse… disables you on using Mana so why did you have to replenish it?”

In order to accomplish this mission to the Terrans of Terrafirma, Siva had to divulge how he can see and detect who the members of the Bloody Church are within their ranks. This included his curse and a few of its specifics.

Siva made another sigh, “I thought so too, in fact, but I didn’t expect that splitting dimensions indeed have a price to pay…..”

[I wasn’t paying attention to it, sir. I apologize.]

“You don’t have to.” Siva shook his head. “It’s not always that I order you to check my Player Panel to check for my status. After all, it’s not useful in any other way than monitoring health conditions.”

[But it was my job to be your support, sir. Being unable to check up on it is not in my programming so I am actually wondering why I wasn’t able to be aware of it immediately.]

“It’s because I didn’t consciously think of it. You’re programmed to react on my thoughts and when I do not think, even in passing, anything to it, you would not react and take action according to them thus you’re unable to act on my behalf. Basically, it’s also because you’re still incomplete so you still have a lot of room to grow to be like Gaia.”

[I will add this to my primary thought database.]

“Well, It’s not a bad thing to admit mistakes thou.”

All this time, Siva seemed to be talking to a ghost and only Mohindra was aware who he was talking to… again, it was information told by Gaia.

She has become aware that Siva is ‘contracted’ to a Universe Spirit named Cortana.

Knowing this, Siva gave a thought command and so Cortana’s Foxgirl WhiteTech Nano-Body made an appearance to the Vajras.

“Please don’t mind me.” Cortana courteously put a deep bow and only Mohindra was neutral in her reaction as she was wondering about Cortana’s appearance.

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A lull before a political discussion…

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