The next day Kaden was kneeling in front of Fualu’s statue in the temple and bowing deeply with his head touching the ground.

“I curse you, Fualu”, Kaden said in his mind. “You and the other gods are a stain that cannot be washed away. Since you like heat, I’ll be giving you some. Here, have this formation.”

All of it was an act to appear discreet and get close enough to the altar so that he could construct the formation there unnoticed. Kaden had chosen Fualu since he felt some disgust that he had been fooled to worship him when he was dumb child. It would be a good altar to start his sacrilege at. The fires would spread, if the initial explosion was not enough.

Kaden had not seen Peil around. It seems Peil took heed of his warning. Even if he was a priest, he could be useful some day. A priest would have good knowledge of church and how things worked in general. To any outsiders things might not be as clear.

It took some time inject the spell and its mana inside a formation. Usually formations were made to create a spell like effect, but they could be made to do it otherwise too. You wouldn’t casually use formations to cast spells, since it was usually far easier to cast spells without them. You would only do so, if the task exceeded your own ability.

The fact that it took a long time was why Kaden was willing to pretend to be pious follower of Fualu. All the kneeling and praying would take time so it was a good cover. The formation itself would be invisible unless someone specifically inspected the area. Creating it was the most noticeable thing.

The manor had been easy to set up. Kaden placed several formations just behind the doorway at the city hall side in the tunnel. He wanted to ensure maximum damage, even if the explosions would happen just behind some wall and mostly underground. There was one at the manor’s side too. It would be good to get rid of any signs of his dealings with Serin and the enchanting ritual he performed.

All of the formations he was making were connected. Once one of them goes off, all of them go off. Kaden even had planned fail safes. Like the one he made at the temple. Once he was done with it, he slowly walked out. It took some effort, but Kaden was able to continue that thin formation line just under his feet. All the time he fed slight mana in it.

Eventually he was able to get out and connect it to the main lines he had put through some alleys. He had a power source at the manor keeping constant mana in the lines. If the lines were ever cut or if someone tampered with the formations, they would explode. They would also explode at latest once that power source ran out. In fact, a single person would have trouble defusing all of the formations even if they found the central point with the power source.

If possible, Kaden liked to be throughout with his formations. He was relatively good with them so why not have some pride over the matter and maintain good quality.

“Its done”, Kaden thought as he made sure the connection was good. “Everything except the supply stores is set up. I’ll draw a line somewhere nearby so once night comes, I can try to get in and set the formation, then come back. I’ll have the power source act as a timer. I’ll put only a small mana crystal to power everything. All of it should go off very quickly.”

Kaden was relatively happy about the situation. What had seemed like a difficult mission was nearing completion. Luck had been on his side. He still had not found good way to deal with the military headquarters in the city hall other than the tunnel. One which he might not have found without Serin and his failure. The pathetic man had probably planned to make use of it for some personal gain.

Kaden touched Vengeance in his bag with his fingers. He could still sense Serin’s soul scream in inside it endlessly.

“Ah, how nice when things go right”, Kaden thought. For sure things had not gone right for some time, but this mission was. “Perhaps this sort of thing is something I have talent for? I’d still rather avoid suicide missions. It might also be that Nelsen was able to arrange something good for me. If I were still at Channel Opening or merely a dire beast, I probably wouldn’t have been even able to get in. Then it would truly have been a suicide mission.”

He returned to the manor and for rest of the day Kaden spent time, yet again, on research. He still wasn’t done with the Sandstorm Hawk’s core and he had gained interesting material on smithing. Specifically that smithing was not exactly just smithing. It was more like how to make your materials into usable pieces so that they can be connected with formations. That was the more complex part. Formations would have to maintain the movement of armor pieces. That was the nearly exoarmor part.

A normal armor would offer protection and whatever formations you would put on it, but just that.

Exoarmor would not only give that, but it would multiply your physical power. Just what kind of materials would you need that can last when, say, Condensation stage expert throws a punch and multiply that power? Mana source? How to sync it with person? That was just personel exoarmor. Kaden knew Saint Empire had heavy weight battle unit with exoarmors with sizes several times humans that were loaded with heavy weapons. He had never seen them, but being part of an elite unit, he did have some knowledge.

People like Nelsen and others he had seen, had only used lower grade, but even those were extremely useful and valuable.

What Kaden had in his hands was somewhere in between normal armor and exoarmor. It would support and enhance its user, but not much else. Still the effect would be much greater than a normal armor. There were times Kaden had wanted an exoarmor, but it would be far in the future. There were far better uses for his funds rather than exravagant expenditure on something he might not even be able to use for long due to maintenance, fuel and other things. He did have strong enough body for them, though.

Kaden put that thought aside. The methods described were at least useful. Mechanism to connect parts to each other and how to transmit forces through it in efficient way without breaking anything. Such things were useful otherwise too. For example, make stronger armor from lower grade materials, if you were able to reduce load on the materials. Then again, if he had good materials, he would be able to with similar methods make better products.

One day wasn’t enough for him to learn all of it.

“So much research”, Kaden muttered to himself as he placed everything back in his bag. “So many things to do.”

He sighed and went to look outside. All looked normal. He was pretty certain no one had discovered his formations that were ready to explode at any time. He glanced at the central point. The mana crystal in it was still fine. Perhaps several hours left in it

“Whether or not I am succesful getting into the supply stores, I will be out quicker than that”, Kaden surmised. “I better switch much smaller mana crystal in it before I go. I won’t be returning here.”

He wasn’t sure what kind of chaos he would cause when the command headquarters blew up, but Sacronan military were not fools. Once the initial distruption passed, they would look for culprit if they still deemed it possible at the time.

“Looks like there might be another pursuit again”, Kaden thought. “I hope saint military won’t fail me this time. There might be those trying to work against me. Well… whatever.”

There was no way Kaden wouldn’t have backup plans. There was no need to trust the saints. If they messed with him, he wouldn’t simply take it without fighting back. It was good to always assume you were going to be deceived.

Kaden sneaked towards the supply stores. Along his way he created yet another formation line. Once he was done with the formation, he could just simply connect it at short distance like he planned earlier. Speed would be very important!

He had looked at the patrols for quite a while. Kaden was pretty certain he would have to get his hands dirty. Other than that, he had already made a few of the formations with Devouring Flame so he knew roughly how long it would take to make one. A good distraction might give him enough time too, but he wasn’t sure how to achieve that.

He had even momentarily thought of going in during day, but night was easier with less people around. At any rate, Kaden finally jumped over some rooftops and landed in an open area surrounding the supply stores. One of the patrols had just passed by and Kaden was thinking of entering the warehouses before another came.

There were some guards inside too, but he hoped to have a hiding place by then.

With his movement technique his quick dash was completely silent. There were indeed people around, but due to the silent entry Kaden managed to move to hiding. It wasn’t going to help for long. He already noticed group of two guards walking towards his location. They had not noticed anything, just a normal patrol.

Kaden waited for them to come closer. He determined them to be advanced Channel Opening, so they were not a problem for him, but needed to die before they made any sounds. The area to the side where Kaden had gone to was near the warehouse walls and as such was slightly out of sight. It would take time for another patrol to pass by.

Just as the patrol passed, Kaden made his move. With speed far too quick for them to react, Kaden tore out the throat of the first one. There was no way for him to do anything except gurgling sounds. Then Kaden ignored him and pulled Vengeance out of his bag. He wanted to experiment.

The other man was about to react and shout alarm, but Kaden was quick enough to cover his mouth as he stabbed him with Vengeance. The man attempted to scream, but not much of the sound came out. Green pale light glowed inside just the area where he had been stabbed. As Kaden was holding him, he felt several ruptures occur inside. Very little extra blood came out even as Kaden pulled out out Vengeance.

There was some thread like pale green strings of mana attached around the wound. This was completely random person with little relation to Kaden’s vengeance. No soul came out, but there was some mass of mana tied within the strings. Those were absorbed inside Vengeance.

The man was completely dead. His skin pale and blood veins visible. Blood veins and organs probably ruptured too. He had died painfully. That wasn’t only thing it did.

“Vengeance seems to drag out some mana along with it even from random people”, Kaden thought. “I think it also tore out a small portion of his soul. The effect should be greater the more involved the target is with my vengeance.”

As interesting it was, Kaden had no time to think of results of the experiment. He needed to act quickly. The one he had stabbed with Vengeance wasn’t even really bleeding, but the other one sure was. It would be noticed soon.

It didn’t matter that the formation wouldn’t be at most optimal place. It was still inside the warehouse. Even when it would be discovered, it would take too long to defuse too. According the Kaden’s calculation there wasn’t much time left anyway. He had estimated it pretty well. Failure or success, time spent inside was not going to be much different.

Once he was done, he drew the formation line along with him back the way he had come from. For a moment Kaden had wondered, if he should just let it be and explode on its own. He still decided to connect it. Simultaneous explosions should a have greater effect.

Just as Kaden got out of sight, someone in the warehouse noticed the blood.

“What the...”, said patrol. He was only momentarily surprised seeing the pale corpse with unusual appearance and the other with throat torn out and pool of blood. “Alarm! Alarm!”