"Does this world despise me so much, or is someone pulling the strings?" Akira groaned, shaking the dirt off his armor and hands.

 

Nothing but dense jungles surrounded him, which was the worst possible location to be transported to after leaving Sector X. The jungle reeked of foul mana, blood, rotten flesh, and dead mana beasts, making it an ideal transition zone between the two empires.

 

"Now, why the hell does everything look the same?"

 

Even the trained foot soldiers of both empires would be perplexed if they were placed in these jungles, where even the leaves resembled one another, making caterpillars curse their misfortune.

 

BOOM BOOM

 

The earth trembled, the trees shook, and the leaves hurriedly fell, like a whirlpool of fire devouring everything.

 

He said carelessly, "Well I am definitely not going there.

 

He had accomplished his goal by altering a significant portion of the future and subsequently the plot, even though it didn't benefit him in the short term. The tensions in the Romanov empire were now their own problems to solve.

 

After about an hour of walking in the opposite direction from where the sound of explosions was coming, his eyes finally caught sight of the sun's glint peeking from the dense forestry around the jungle. 

 

“Hehe, I take back everything I just said; arriving here was a stroke of luck, after all.”

 

The scene before his eyes was as ethereal as one could imagine; the reflection of the small church in the lake's still water was a blissful addition to the place's floral splendor and pungent odor.

If a nun ever imagined a place like heaven, it would be this exact location.

 

"Wait, where the hell did this church come from?" 

 

Now beauty lies in the eye of the beholder, what could have been one of the most beautiful places for anyone else was becoming a disturbing place for him.

 

The church, which served as the center of attention in this location, quickly came to him as an eyesore because, in accordance with his foresight, the location of the church was now over something he didn’t wanted to.

 

Sigh

 

"It must have happened because of a change in the history of this place, which prompted the people of the town to build a church here." He shook his head and walked to the front door.

The wind brushed against his bare face before he covered it with the mask of koh, it was something that he learned the hard way, to hide his presence before going inside the enemy’s territory. His mana senses had already swept the entire area and had found no trace of anyone else.

 

When he shook that, the lock on the church door rattled. The building as a whole appeared outdated, and the layer of dust covering it was so thick that it appeared no one had recently visited.

 

Cough Cough,

 

The church seemed to be chuckling at his antics, as all it took was a slight shake of the door to make him cough hard and back off from the entrance.

 

"They haven't cleaned you lately, have they? Don't worry, I've got some good ol' fire with me,"

 

With that, a tiny arrow-shaped flame erupted from his hands, latching onto the brittle, old wooden door, and burning it in one swift motion. Though it appeared simple, this quick action required a high level of mana control.

 

 

He pushed the scorched door with his finger saying, "A good party trick."

 

Back on their way to the same church, Ichi and Sophia were walking quickly, their faces slightly tired from not getting enough sleep in the previous few days due to the group's search for the runaway princess.

 

Ichi questioned, "Are you sure this is the right way?

 

“Yes, sister Ichi, I visited there frequently when I was a child.” She readily responded, Ichi being the one with whom she had formed a close bond over the previous few days. 

 

"Oh, you used to go there as a kid?"

 

"Yes, mother would always take me there when she had any free time, and as a kid, I would always look forward to those moments because mother rarely had any free time." She reminisced about the past.

 

"That must have been a good time," Ichi said, her voice having a tinge of sadness.

 

"Hmmm, and there's also a small lake in front of the church where I used to swim for hours and hours until my mother scolded me to get out, hehe she still does." She said this while sticking her tongue out.

 

Hearing that roused her sadistic side, but she kept it in check. "You certainly need some punishment, don't you?"

 

“Huh? Are you okay sister Ichi?” Sophia sensed something but couldn’t understand what it was.

 

“Nothing-nothing we shou-should focus on setting the last piece.” She paced up further ahead.

 

Sophia shouted "Wait for me sister Ichi" and accelerated her pace.

 

Akira yelled while clearing out the church, "Haah-haah.. Why is there a bed inside a damn church?!"

 

Benches on one side and broken pillars lying lifelessly on the floor made it appear as if a tornado had wreaked havoc inside the place, and the faceless statue of the God of Light stood in the center, watching his place get thoroughly thrashed by a teenager.

 

Without wasting a second, he began looking for the entrance to the ancient altar that was the main reason he had come to this town. However, this church's presence had made this a challenging task.

 

He wondered who exactly this statue was meant to represent as he heard a clink sound as his hands struck the statue's foot. 

 

"A faceless statue within a church? This does not make sense." 

 

The statue's color had deteriorated from pristine white to gloomy yellow, reminding him of how long this place had been left alone, which seemed like a far-fetched thought given that it was a church inside a religious city.

 

"Hmm? Is that under it?" he wondered as his hands slid the statue to the left.

 

Akira wasn't looking at the wooden flooring underneath the carpet, which swept along with it and exposed the wooden subfloor, which, like the rest of the space, was in a sorry state. Instead, his attention was fixed on the round glyph that was shining from beneath the flooring.

 

"So there it is, well I am already lazy, so why don't we fit an explosive talisman here?" It was purchased specifically for this purpose.

 

The talisman looked like a regular piece of paper with some runes etched on it; the runes represented the intricate mana circuit that went into making the talisman and gave it the power of a tier one explosion.

 

The faceless statue was probably going to be blown to pieces, but he didn't give a damn about that as he placed the talisman on top of the glyph and moved away. The shadows on the walls were receding bit by bit and the place was getting colder, an indication of the fact that it was near sunset.

 

It was at this exact moment when his ears picked up the footsteps of someone stepping over the wooden door outside, the blitz bolt spell activated and took him to one of the obscure looking hidden places in the corner. 

 

“Who the hell is here?” He muttered in his breath, the mask of koh showcasing it’s full power.

 

“Be careful Sophia.” Ichi said while catching her hand which was mid air from stumbling on the charred door.

 

“Thank you sister Ichi.”

 

They had only arrived a few minutes before and were basking in the beauty of the place, Sophia happily telling Ichi about all the secret places she had roamed around as a child, she was telling her about the lake until her eyes landed on the crumbled state of the church.

 

This was something she had not expected to see, the place that had served as her second home in her childhood, the place that held so many happy memories for her, was now in a rundown state, which contradicted the reports that her mother had received.

 

“Who did this?” She asked, pointing to the broken entrance.

 

In the meantime, Ichi had crouched down and was inspecting the charred wood, which was still hot and emitting smoke, with small pieces of bright red color dancing inside it like fireflies.

 

“This was burnt recently, not more than an hour ago.” She analyzed and moved forward.

 

The burning of the door wasn't a big deal for Sophia; it was the state of the entire building that bothered her, and the fact that there wasn't a single person from the church here hinted at something bigger lurking in the shadows, something that had slipped past all of the established rules and regulation.

 

“Sophia, why is there no one here? Not even someone to do the daily rituals.” Ichi’s sharp eyes were scanning the entire place while her hands were on the tsuka of her dual katanas.

 

“I-I don't know sister Ichi, this is totally opposite of what I saw the last time.” Her body was shivering and her mind was almost blank at this time, she was a sheltered girl and even this was too much for herself.

 

“Calm down Sophia, I promise you anyone who is behind this would have to pay the price but can we first focus on the thing we are here for?”

 

“Sorr-sorry sister Ichi, I couldn't control myself.”

 

“It’s okay.”

 

“But sister Ichi, who would have burnt this door?” 

 

Though it was outside of the main city, the church was not in a location where something like this could happen on its own, and given how recent it was, something was odd.

 

“Well let’s head inside and have a look.”

 

That was the final nail in the coffin that turned their suspicion into full-fledged proof, as the inside was a complete mess. The wall was on the verge of collapsing, the ceiling and corners looked like a colony of spider mana beasts, the prayer hall was thrashed with benches thrown everywhere, but the most revolting thing that made Sophia scream was the faceless statue of the God of Light.

 

“What’s wrong?” Ichi, who had gone ahead, returned quickly and saw Sophia's colorless face, who had now plopped to the ground and pointed her finger straight ahead. 

 

"Blas-blasphemy!!" The faceless statue of the God of Light was the pinnacle of what anyone could have done to make her look this way.

 

“Huh?” 

 

"How could someone do this, Sister Ichi? Thi-this is blasphemy, against everything that has been taught to me.” Her mana flow was out of control, with every word reverberating throughout the room.

 

"Uhh, yes, but we can focus on it later?" She wasn't religious, and now wasn't the time to be.

 

“But-but-”

 

“No buts Sophia.” 

 

“Okay sister Ichi.” She meekly nodded her head and dejectedly went on with her work.

 

Akira couldn't help but sigh when he saw the duo's antics; all he wanted was for them to go away, but fate had other plans which was most likely going to be hated by him.

 

‘You've got to admit that this nun girl is overly devout; fortunately, things are different in the capital.’ 

 

He remained motionless in that specific corner while the two girls set up the transmitter, and things continued that way for about an hour. He had complete faith in his mask, believing it would conceal his presence even from someone with Ichi's level of strength, but he made a serious error in judgment there.

 

“It’s all done sister Ichi.” She said, keeping her head down.

 

"Sigh, Sophia, cheer up, I would, no, all of us will help you later with this."

 

"Really?" she asked, her eyes twinkling with hope.

 

In the meantime, the two of the Ichi's katanas began rattling inside their scabbards, causing Sophia to look at them with puzzled expressions.

 

“What’s wrong with them?”

 

“COME OUT, I know you are there.” Instead of replying to her Ichi yelled and drew out her swords making the surrounding heat up in process.

 

‘Oh come on, don’t tell me she knows me here.’

 

“Three seconds and I will destroy this entire place.” The katanas now began to glow up in a blue hue charging the mana particles in the air.

 

“Des-destroy the entire place?” This has to be officially the worst day ever for Sophia.

 

“Three…two….”

 

‘Shit, shit, shit.’ 

 

“God damn Victor! What are you doing?” One of the rebels asked his brother.

 

The sweat that was pouring nonstop from head to toe danced in the air and swapped places with each other as he held up his shield against the approaching sword slash. The sword in his own hands had no chance of fending off the attacks because the force was too great.

 

The rest of the rebels, who had also stormed the royal prison in an attempt to free the captive prince, experienced the same fate; their surprise attack had not been all that surprising after they had taken the brunt of the first blow.  

 

The elderly man and Red, who were on the front lines, had it the worst because they were the first to be bombarded and had to expend a lot of mana casting defenses, from the get go everything was happening exactly opposite of what they had planned. 

 

Red cried out in pain as the approaching lance brushed past his left shoulder.

 

However, the wielder of the lance didn't give Red any time to catch his breath. As a tiny ball of mana charged up from the tip of his lance and flew towards Red, the elderly man who had just killed an imperial soldier by dodging his attack quickly moved in front of him and took the blow.

 

“No, old man!”

 

Sergey said from under his thick armor, "You are quite a lucky one, having someone like him to take such a deadly attack."

 

You're going to pay for this, Red yelled and shuffled his feet in an effort to close the gap between himself and Sergey, who had foreseen that and had not given him any chance to do so.

 

He turned around and made a half-arc with his lance, making himself appear to be the nucleus with tiny electrons orbiting around it. Several lazer beams were launched from his lance and surrounded Red, who by this point realized that he had been duped at some point.

 

Because he was never a king but a mere pawn to be used and thrown away.