(Day 167) Aprilis 12th, 12th year of the Dragon, Age of Enlightenment

I activated my Cloak of Invisibility and ran as fast as I could to Venoran. A voice spoke into my mind and surprised the crap out of me which caused me to tumble through the air until I brought myself under control again. As I did the voice continued, “Hello, Adamantadine. I am contacting you directly to ask you to first head to the Temple of Serena in Venoran and save Freya”

“Freya’s in danger?” I asked interrupting the voice

“Yes, also you should know King Liam II is dead. The Council sent in a group of assassins and killed off a significant portion of the Nobility. You will discover the reason for this eventually. Let me say that the fates decreed that it would be so with or without your influence so do not blame yourself. In your Place of Power, we may have longer conversations. I will end this by saying you may heal Adaline freely with my power while she is in your home. Otherwise, my powers will not aid you. Good Hunting my cleric

“Thank you, Serena,” I said.

“What the fuck was that?” Abi asked.

“Just my goddess talking to me. Going to be busy in the near future. Seems there’s a war on. It looks like I’m going to be up against rogues and assassins. Time to bring our super A-game.” I thought to Abi.

“Do what you have to be, just be careful,” she said.

22 seconds later I started circling Venoran in order to slow down then headed down to the Temple at a more reasonable pace. As I did so I cast God’s Sight, which would last 500 minutes. I activated my Cloak of Invisibility and sped into the temple unnoticed. I noticed that there were city guards fighting three other city guards and there were two individuals moving up behind Freya and another priest slowly surrounded by a red glow,

“Abi what’s the red glow mean?” I asked.

“You didn’t read the spell? Hold on, I’m looking through you’re prompts. Okay got it. The red glow means that there is a hostile…” Abi was saying as I struck the individual trying to sneak up on Freya for full damage which caused him to explode. Later when I reviewed the combat log I would learn that I had hit the assassin for 1,908,639 damage.

“… towards you, or someone you consider a friend and that they are somehow obscured from sight…” Abi was saying as I struck the 2nd stealthed target which caused her to explode as well.

“…If the red glow only surrounds someone’s head, that means they're hostile but visible.” Abi finished as I used my 3rd Combat action to scan the room.

As I was scanning the room there was a pop beside me as a short sword came into existence stabbing toward Freya’s back. I moved and deflected the blade while I performed a called strike to this assassin's head with the sole purpose of knocking them out. The assassin slumped to the ground behind Freya as I had the nanites remove all nonmagical items from the assassin while taking all of her magical items and placing them in my ring. When the assassin was nude I had the nanites cover her in a toga. I scanned the room as I set the nanites to clean up the dead and leave all the normal equipment. I also made sure to have the nanites repair any damage to the temple. I looked at Freya as she turned around and said “Serena sends her love”

“Thank the Goddess, and you, Adam. The Castle has fallen, and the King is dead. Knowing what you can do. Destroy any of the attackers that are not city guards. Try to do non-lethal blows on any of the residents of the city. This spell will help you identify those that hold residence. Be warned one is an Assassin of considerable strength” She said. Then she cast her spell

Freya has cast the level 40 spell Eyes of the Kingdom of Venoran. For 100 minutes anyone that is carrying papers, or bares a coin or talisman with the spell Resident of Venoran on their person or in an extra-dimensional space they are carrying will be surrounded by a soft white circle. This can be noticed up 100’ away. This spell cannot be resisted.

“You will have to teach me that spell when you get a chance. Are you going to be safe here?” I asked as the guards started to bind and gag the two traitorous survivors?”

“In a moment. Please protect me while I cast a spell.” Freya said. Then she started to Pray. A minute later a wave of energy pulsed out in all directions.

I looked at Freya questionly.

“It was a magical barrier of sorts. It is not a physical barrier as much as it is a mental warding. Anyone that is not a resident of Venoran will not be able to come within 1,000 feet of this location” she said.

“And the traitors that are residents? I asked

“There are not many in the city I fear. If they come in numbers we can’t subdue or handle, I have another spell that will seal this temple physically.

“Okay, sounds like a plan. I pulled the Staff of Healing and the Staff of Resurrection from my ring. I found these yesterday. Use them as you see fit and keep them or pass them on to another cleric. We both know I’m not much of a healer. I’m going to head to the castle first. Then run through the city taking out any hostiles that are not members of the city. See you on the other side” I said as I activated Displace and Stealth.

Freya watched me disappear from normal sight then I was gone and she was outside my 500’ range. I was in the throne room 2 seconds later. Noting the female assassin who did not bare the mark of a resident of Vernon, I rushed forward and plucked her heart and dropped it in front of her as I moved out of the room searching for more targets. Quick, efficient, and deadly. This would hopefully terrify the assassins but it would also scare the residents. That could work in my favor. Moments later I heard a scream from the Throne room.

I sped through the Castle finding almost 30 assassins on the lower floors as I systematically searched the castle for anyone that didn’t belong. They were all extremely low level and I killed each by plucking hearts out. This led to screams from witnesses that were being toyed with by the assassins. I then went through the upper floors and found another 25 assassins that were busy trying to either break into the king's personal family chambers or trying to kill off other nobility. Each of these was killed by also having their hearts plucked out and dropped in front of them. As I left the Castle 3 minutes later I was absolutely sure there were no assassins in it, though the screams of the witnesses to the assassins' deaths started to emanate from the castle.

Going clockwise I searched every single residence and structure around the Castle and found another 15 low-level assassins that I also killed. This made 55 low-level assassins. When had killing become so easy to me? Shouldn’t I feel bad about doing this? How did I feel? I felt angry. Once I realized that I returned my thoughts to the task at hand. I could explore my feelings later. As I started a second ring further out. I ran into 18 advanced assassins. I’d started Analyzing them before attacking. I was still leaving them with their hearts on the ground and witnesses screaming. This had the effect of creating a cacophonous scream that emanated from the castle and was spreading in all directions much faster than I was as I made my way through every building. As I moved through the buildings I noted those with dead bodies and those that had none that the Assassins had seemed to skip. I’d let Freya know about it but if the city did nothing I might revisit their homes and deprive them of everything they owned.

Desirae was getting ready to go into another Nobel’s home that had not sworn allegiance to the council when she heard the continuous screaming coming from the Castle. She activated stealth as did her left and right-hand lieutenants as they set themselves in a 3 spoke formation, each looking out to cover 120 degrees of their surrounds

I was on my fourth circle. I’d killed another 24 assassins, 7 had been low-level when I came to a halt and Analyzed three Legendary Assassins that seemed to be waiting for something. Probably me, I mused.

Analyze: Success: Desirae Level 4,897 Hit Points 5,437

Analyze: Success: Hera level 3500 Hit Points 3,890

Analyze: Success: Kera level 3760 Hit Points 4,180

I ran through the air so that I was 449 feet directly above them looking down as I cast a fireball at the spoke. Once cast I used the ring of Blinking to change my location and direction of movement and to break LOS.

Desirae had not lived as long as she had by hesitating. She caught a shadow against a wall that had not been there a moment ago and activated her ability Shadow Form. Her lieutenants were not as quick and took a fireball that did over 254,000 points of damage to each of them. They turned to dust as she survived. She tracked the target and thought she knew where her attacker had landed. She activated another ability and stepped through shadow to strike nothing.

I saw the last assassin and cast Mage Bolt.

Luckily for the assassin, she was wearing a Necklace that was specifically designed to thwart Mage bolt by creating a field that absorbed the energy of the attack which could be utilized to fuel other spells and abilities or even charge magic items. The problem though was that it had a maximum limit of energy it could absorb. Seeing how powerful the fireball had been she hoped it wouldn’t be so with Mage bolt. She knew she was in trouble when she saw multiple bolts of all eight colors streak toward her. She knew that the spell would saturate her necklace which would cause it to explode doing the full damage to everything within 20 feet.

I was unaware of any of this as I activated Invisibility and Jumped to hover directly above the assassin so that I could witness my handiwork. I didn’t need an assassin sneaking up on me. That was why I was completely surprised when I saw her shadow form take something that was glowing from her neck which I identified.

Identify: Success: Necklace of Negation. If worn this Necklace can absorb up to 100,000 points of damage from the spell Mage Bolt. Stored damage can be converted to magical charges for wands at a 10 to 1 ratio. Magical Staves at a 25 to 1 ration Artifact charges at a 100 to 1 ration. If the Necklace absorbs more than 100,000 damage there is a 1% chance per point of absorbed damage above 100,000 of detonation. Within 1 second.

She then moved her hand towards a ring on her other hand and the necklace disappeared.

It must be a ring of holding I thought, this could be bad, I analyzed the Shadow and was not shocked to see that it was Desirae, the highest-level assassin that had survived. I started to fly up to put a little more distance between me and her and watched as she drew back her hand to throw the ring when it shattered as darkness expanded from the point of the ring and opened into a sucking vortex that sucked the Assassin, and everything within 1000’ that wasn’t secured into it, including me.