“That’s too much.” Maxwell said.

“Look here, I had to kill 30 demons to get these nearly dead holy artifacts and among them were two A ranks that I killed in the initial sneak attack! Do you think this money is some random charity? I need a lot of money so I can survive and my clan can continue to function damn it!” he shouted.

“You are asking for 10 million per artifact when you know there isn’t even that much money surviving in Eshen anymore. You should be well aware that all of the royal treasury has gone in smoke along with every major bank that was in the eastern eshen capital.” Maxwell replied.

“Fuck, if it wasn’t more important to keep this stuff out of demon hands i would have never gone for it but there were too many in a single place to give up that chance.” he complained.

“Well we can’t buy them off you, at least not at once. We’ve recently taken a shit ton of debt to pay off debt that we took for monsters that we recruited for the population and we honestly ‘can’t’ pay with the current conditions.” Maxwell said.

“Fuck, the governments are gone, do those things even count as valid anymore, you’ve got more things to worry about than other contracts from collapsed countries.” he said.

Maxwell rubbed the bridge of his nose. “The most we’ve got stored that doesn’t already have a destination is about 20 million, basically less than half the asking price. All the rest is meant for rebuilding and resources to the order that needs to rebuild basically all of Eshen’s military establishment and expand.” he said.

“Fuck, I’ve never been short changed so much. Fine, at least I get money off of it that I can use to survive.” He said.

“Are you going to continue attacking demons for the still unforged holy artifacts?” Logan asked.

“Of course, my entire clan is constantly monitoring the movement of stolen holy artifacts. The material is special even if it is contaminated and it gives off a faint reaction to a special ritual. This is especially true to damaged holy artifacts. To date… I think we’ve retrieved about 15 damaged artifacts before they could be forged by them.” Ulias said.

“I’ve been wondering but how do they even forge Legend weapons when most of the smiths are part of the order?” Olivia asked.

“They’ve used a very powerful enslavement magic on a young member of the smiths and are basically slaving him away to forge their swords. Poor man can’t do much against them honestly with that kind of curse on him.” Ulias said with a sigh.

The others frowned and looked at one another.

“If only we knew where the Legend smiths were located, even if it is one or two smiths it would be great if they could come and help strengthen the army with weapons.” Olivia said.

“We still need to prepare a lot of magic weapons of all elemental kinds. The best option is for each person to obtain their own material of all elements and constantly do like father did and forge materials into their swords so that they can gather the elemental materials for when we get a proper legend smith to reforge the swords.” Logan said.

“The kid is right, legend smiths can only work with what they have, you would need at least material of every element forged into magic swords to prepare the basic material for it.” He said.

“Don’t worry about it, for now let’s get those artifacts into a safe location, we will get the money and you can be off before more demons start to appear here.” Maxwell said.

They agreed and Ulias handed the artifacts to Logan while Maxwell headed into and soon returned with a stuffed magic bag with all the money.

Ulias made sure to check before nodding and leaving. “Make sure to gather up more money, since you have a safe location that can hide the presence of artifacts, you are likely to see us when we take more artifacts.” he said.

“You should go to the saint of water in Mortis Desert. He can actually heal the artifacts.” Logan said in return.

“They would take it instead of buying it off of us. You kids, be careful with those things.” He said.

They didn’t mind as he charged his body with lightning and burst forward.

When he was gone Logan sighed, “To think that he was the reason I was suspected of being a Holy Artifact thief. Damn that was an annoying period of time.”

He explained what happened before Olivia arrived at Helix at the time and Maxwell chuckled, “Seems there are a lot of things that are the result of fate.” He said.

They nodded and headed into the micro world where they got a little more serious.

“Are we going to put these into the fountain of the statue?” Logan asked.

“Not yet, the statue is far from fully restored so for the time being we are just going to wash them in high quality holy water from the second pond. It should stabilize the artifacts and cleanse the growing corruption of the demons for the time being but the blessings are weak and we honestly can’t restore it since we don’t know which religions they belong to.” he said.

They head to the pond and Maxwell shocked the two by showing them the flame wings, something he never showed off before and went to the statue and carefully extracted a ball of glowing water using magic, never touching it with his hands directly and returning and having them maintain the water while he prayed to the statue.

When it was done he turned and carefully pulled a small bit and began to wash the artifacts.

"Why are you so careful to not touch it?” Olivia asked.

“Holy water cannot touch mortal hands. That is why we always fill water vials with magic. Even if we have holy mana in our bodies, holy mana cannot be contained in worldly contaminated things. The crystal vials are all produced and cleaned on the inside with holy water which is why they hold it in but without that it wouldn’t work.” he explained as he carefully washed the artifacts.

They each constantly let out black smog that was the demon corruption slowly getting washed off but they were heavily stained and damage could be seen while their glow was very weak.

“Is it bad if the holy sun water is dropped on it?” Logan asked.

“Yes, the blessing energy is different. We need to house them in some place with a strong holy presence so they don’t get weaker.” Maxwell said.

“Why not our chapel? Jade has already finished several of the idols and the holy presence is getting stronger inside and it should preserve them well, right?” Logan said.

Maxwell thought and nodded, “You will need to build a room for it though.” He said.

“That doesn’t matter. We have a basement floor that can be used.” Logan said.

He carefully washed it all until no more corruption could be removed with the level of the water before dumping the rest into the lake so that it would flow naturally through the micro world and finally sighed.

After that, they carefully wrapped the artifacts and took them out and went into Logan’s micro world where they went to the newly built chapel.

It was also Olivia and Maxwell's first time and entering, the two were actually hit by the divine aura surprisingly heavy.

“I’ve learned that even just a moment of prayer is enough for me to calm the pressure.” Logan said, guiding them inside.

Jade was inside cleaning the rubble from one of the idols she was building at the moment.

“Master.” she exclaimed.

He just smiled and went with them to the front where the ancient god’s idol was but he had no form defined yet. Presently only the bronze gods were fully made and she was making the outlines of each silver plate. It seems she couldn’t clearly see them without the help of the aura of the others first.

They put the artifacts down as Maxwell and Olivia kneeled but Logan heard a faint whisper and with a look around and a frown he walked forward and carefully took the artifact out.

“What are you doing?” Maxwell asked.

“Take them out.” Logan said.

The two were confused but they soon took the five out and put them lined up and Logan looked at Jade, “Pray along with us.” He said. “You sit in front of the artifacts and face the front and we will be behind.” He said

“Why?” She asked.

“I don’t know.” He said.

They looked at him strangely but Jade assumed it might be something similar to the time he got the chapel’s blueprint through revelation.

She kneeled down and faced the ancient god’s pedestal and the other three kneeled and closed their eyes and prayed like how Maxwell had taught them to do for the statue and each of them began to pray.

What took them by surprise was how they felt a very large surge of magic and light that made it impossible to open their eyes for a while until they seemed to obtain some kind of freedom but they felt something in them and they completed their prayers instead before finally opening their eyes and looking up.

Standing in front of Jade was a six winged humanoid being with white ribbons floating around him and smiling. The most striking part was on the chest as it seemed transparent with a visible flame.

Logan was able to take a small look around and noticed anyone else was unconscious.

“Good children.” he said.

“Great one, what do you require?” Maxwell said, extremely serious.

The angel smiled, “You need not be cautious or that courteous, the lords witnessed an opportunity with these before them is all.” He said.

“W-what opportunity.” Logan asked.

The angel smiled as he reached into what seemed to be the void itself and from it, removed a hunk of glowing material before also taking out a small bright glowing crystal that was immensely tiny.

“Young priestess, tell me, what form of weapon do you use?” he asked.

“Ah… um… I train the golden lion sword art to train my body but I am a healer at heart. I desire to save anyone if possible so I fight with the staff and magic.” She said.

He nodded, “Indeed, that feels like the kind of priestess you give off. May I have your weapon for a moment.” He asked.

She nodded and quickly pulled it out and presented it to him.

He simply made it float with a wave and it took the center.

He examined it before taking another object that looked like a bone fragment and finally did something shocking.

The five artifacts were pulled to him and the flame in his chest came out and instantly covered them, the stains of corruption were instantly evaporated but with it also the nearly dead blessings leaving the bare bodies.

The three humans felt cold when they saw this but what really sent a chill was when they melted down and seemed to increase in mass as the material expanded as it was uncompressed before he took the block of raw material and put it inside the flame. They watched it melt into a pure white version.

It was clear that the artifacts had many impurities and when it was totally melted, they blended and released black toxic smoke as those earthly impurities were burned.

Soon it began to draw a portion and it turned into a blade slowly and finally formed a sword blade.

The remaining material however flew to the staff and in the process, also took the fragment and melted everything into one mass before a small portion came out and formed the hilt but it also looked like a staff head before most of the rest formed a sheath but also the body of a staff and everything solidified. As for the tiny bright glowing drop, the angel paused.

“This droplet is the combined blessing of the 22 lords and this artifact is now the Holy Artifact of the Pantheon of Knighthood. It is a holy sword as well as a holy staff however the holy aura is hidden and contained by the staff which has been infused with a fragment of Holy Dragon bones and God metal. This dot is the centerpiece of the blessing.” he said and put it into the base of the blade and it sheathed itself and slowly floated down into Jade’s hand.

They all swallowed hard because now they had two Holy artifacts belonging to the Order. This is a very heavy responsibility.

“W-will this not be corrupted by contact with demons?” Logan asked.

“We have accounted for this.” He said and turned to the small bit left and holded the molten material forming a wide stone with a hole into its core.

After that he turned not to Jade but to Logan and touched his forehead where a crest of the pantheon appeared and he witnessed the entire Micro world but it had expanded to fully as a D rank and underground, a large ritual construction sat and a very complex construction as a foundation.

The microworld grew to max after C rank and it expanded and it went to B, then A and even S rank.

In fact, it continued all the way to SSS as the world grew and would form an immense underground temple of immense glory and power and at the center, this small pedestal would radiate the faith gathered and he saw a blurred figure hold a weakened and even tainted staff struck into the pedestal and all that corruption instantly be purged and the blessing regain all it’s power and glory.

When that glow consumed him, he came out gasping and his heart beating hard. “The pedestal gathers faith and restores and even strengthens the sword!” he said before sweat covered his forehead.

“Yes, this is your Micro world so you are most affected by it so it is only right that you know how to do it. Never lose this because once you place the staff blade into it, the bulk of the blessing will be housed within and even if the blade completely ‘dies’ it can be restored through faith. The lord believes this can become one of the shining beacons to safety, make sure to keep it safe and child…” he turns to Jade, “Do not draw the sword until truly necessary. The staff will function as before except more powerfully and will allow you to use holy mana without trouble. The format at the top is just a decoy so others think it is a normal staff, never reveal this.” he said.

“Huh? W-would it not need faith?” Jade asked.

“The blessing of this artifact is unlike any other, there are few pantheons and any artifact they make is singular. This artifact is made from all gods making a singular blessing. The only important thing is that it be bathed in the holy presence in the chapel regularly and it will maintain its health. Furthermore, it is also designed to obtain faith when held while giving sermons and giving teachings.” He said and looked at Jade and touched her center horn.

It began to shine for a moment before looking at Maxwell, “Remember this, your rule book is also considered a sacred text made by the ancient hero and our lords.” He said.

Maxwell frowned but nodded, “I… I am unsure of how much this religion will grow to blend, I cannot force others to kneel for the gods. I can only teach the rules in the manner I was taught.” He said.

“That is fine, there is no good or bad method and the gods have watched. You can leave the growth to these children and just focus on being the protective cover that everyone needs.” He said and with a smile, his figure vanished slowly and the pressure they hadn’t realized existed slowly faded away.

Logan looked at the staff in Jade’s hand and then at the pedestal.

He thought of the information before getting up and carefully touching the small pedestal and walked to the spot the angel had appeared and carefully placed it down just right.

“Jade.” He said.

She knew what he wanted and she walked over and put it in.

Both of them began to brightly shine and the aura merged with that of the chapel and all the crests on the plaques shined and gathered mana and formed a magical crest of each.

They all gathered at the pedestal before sinking into the front and embedding the divine crest on the side before everything calmed down.

The crest formed on the pedestal and the glow vanished but there was a divine feeling left upon it as Jade removed the staff.

Logan looked and carefully removed it from the spot and held it in his hand. “I’ll keep this piece for the time being, it will take a while before anything concrete is built for its proper placement.” Logan said.

“This is quite dangerous now… I hope the five religions that had those artifacts don’t find problems.” Maxwell said.

“No problem.” Both Logan and Jade said and paused before Logan continued, “Those weren’t religious artifacts. The angel confirmed it in the information he gave us. Those were actually artifacts gained in dungeons like helix where celestial beings use the dungeon system to quickly deliver artifacts to worthy humans. Although most of them end up taken by religions who have agendas and even if the blessing isn’t their own, they try to make it theirs.” He explained.

“I hope it doesn’t get found out.” He said.

“Then we just need to be stronger than our enemy if they decide to cause trouble.” He said.

Maxwell looked at his son and grinned, “Right… that is true! We’ve been on the backfoot for 800 years and now it is our time to come back!” he exclaimed and got up.

He was very respectful to the idols before leaving however but after he did, he took Olivia to quickly make hidden precautions. He didn’t need to say anything to Logan as he was clear about everything.

As for the two left, “Jade, take care of those that fainted, if they ask, just say that you connected to the gods and received a divine message and the result was too strong for them and they fell unconscious.” he said.

“What are you going to do?” Jade asked.

“The first part to building a proper base is to properly control the world tree of the micro world. The angel taught me how and exactly how to ‘rebuild’ the structure of its branching roots to make the micro world grow to the best condition to accept the pedestal.” he said.

She nodded but was concerned, “What about patrol?” she asked.

“The patrol schedule and portal will not be affected by what I am doing, after all the portal worked fine without the world tree originally anyway.” He said.

She understood and it just meant that they were not leaving for missions at the borders today.

She went to tend to the unconscious while Logan went to the small altar at the center of the micro world.

The sprout was presently about 2 meters tall but still attached to the altar and had glowing spirits fluttering around it.

In his mind however, the D rank tree at full growth would already have disconnected from the altar. He touched the altar, not the tree, and closed his eyes as he chanted a spell in heavenly language, a chant taught to him by the angel and the words controlled the rules of the world and the world tree as a result.

Instantly the white tree shined and released a pulse through its roots to the very edge of every root and hair before returning and the light gathered and fell upon his hand and the form filled his mind.

The roots were wild and acted like a 1 tree forest, filling 80% of the soil but this wasn’t a good thing. Although it prevented erosion and other problems and properly spread many things like mana and vitality into the soil, it actually killed off natural seeds produced by spirits, which explained why the orchid had a hard time growing, even after a few years the trees were weak and it was because of this.

Also, it prevented natural water channels from forming and instead the water was pumped through the tree roots naturally and just kept at a constant moisture that was ‘healthy’ while excess water was drained into the underside of the orb where the tree used it as reserves to maintain the humidity for weeks on end.

Do remember that the orb was 5 km in diameter and the island was 2 km in diameter yet the top of the tree was barely 2 meters tall.

It was very unlike the massive tree of the golden lion micro world which was hundreds of meters tall for almost 100 km wide yet it promoted the growth of naturally formed wild forests and the magic of the tree even gave birth to naturally occurring animals within the orb.

With the entire view of the roots, he began to chant a different incantation and this time, the island began to tremble, making everyone stop while the tree started to glow.

In the sense that Logan held, he witnessed all the thin long root hairs instantly turn to mana and be absorbed into their thicker branches. From the base of the root to the ends, they were absorbed and very quickly the tree began to show this.

It shook a bit as the roots got a bit thicker while he continued and the next thickest branches turned into mana and was pulled back in.

This time the growth was obvious.

In moments the tree stretched to over 5 meters and in doing so, it actually nearly covered the altar but at the same moment, the roots began to move.

The ten roots pulled off the altar and stretched out like swamp trees and made a small dome around the altar, perfectly freeing it and it sat above it now.

When all of those roots were done, Logan started on the second largest roots and the tree grew once more to nearly 15 meters and at the end, the thickest ten roots pulled all the way out until the tree levitated above him with the roots free and it was almost 40 meters in height.

This was only half of the ritual but even this was enough to alert everyone and there were those coming over.

“What happened?!” One of the recruited soldiers exclaimed.

Logan naturally had no time for this as he started chanting the next part.

It was the reverse process but it was more complex because now he was controlling each place and only one root extended and bore into the ground along the proper line and one by one they expanded while the tree strank back due to the expansion.

When this happened, the island momentarily shined before expanding about 200 meters.

He started the next part and only released a limited number of secondary branches in the format that would promote the best growth.

The island once more grew almost to a 3km radius.

The third layer of roots spread and was also a limited number, not the total amount, and before finally releasing the thinnest roots.

When it was done, the tree was stable at around 7 meters while the island was completely filling the orb once more and all the excess water was pushed into the spaces that the roots once occupied.

That said, the growth of the island was not the same as previous growths. The space from 2 km to 5 km was covered in natural trees and foliage and surprisingly even the fruit trees and crops that were in waiting were all fully grown in their farms.

When it was done, Logan looked up and nodded, “Perfect, now the micro world will properly grow and D rank mana should expand the orb to at least 20 km radius and at least 15 km of land.” he said and looked back at the people gathered around. “What is everyone looking at! This isn’t a spectacle! Get back to training!” he shouted.

“Sir, what did you do?” One of the soldiers asked.

“Made my micro world more efficient, that is all you need to know, now everyone, stop gawking and go! Time is not our ally and every moment you waste is a moment that the demons have to expand their armies!” he shouted.

He pushed everyone to quickly get back to work and started training the next group so that they did not focus on the tree. It would still take another rearranging of the later branches for it to properly.

After the training, he took a moment to leave and flew away from the village he stationed himself in and opened the connection of the micro world and began to absorb and process mana and release into the micro world to grow.

He set an alarm for the next training and when he entered he used a little magic to try and see the size and saw it had grown by about 100 meters which was good progress. If it continued, he could very well establish sentient monster villages and instead of requiring the need for spreading religion to the world at large, just having the worlds of the Golden Lion and his own would be plenty for their religion.

He didn’t know if it would work though but it was an interesting idea to say the least.

He continued the training of all officials and disciples as required before planning more missions to continue border patrol from potential threats from the scum down south.