Chapter 48

Archbishop Valdis paled considerably as he saw the scene in front of him!

The Blood Orb! The foundation of his unparalleled strength! It was slowly turning brown, solidifying and falling off!

"No…no…no! This cannot be! The All-Devouring Blood Orb is a gift from our God! Nothing can ever stand against it!" Archbishop Valdis was growing more and more desperate by the second. His blind fanaticism causing him to forget that he was in the middle of battle, but neither side had any intension to provoke a cornered beast.

The Captain looked at The Blood Orb, deep in thought, as he noticed a point, 'The blood… it seems to be… dying?'

Grandpa was keeping a close eye on The mad Archbishop, 'It seems like His Highness had predicted this… I can see that he had purposefully contaminated the blood of those he had killed with his Death Energy, in secret. So that is the reason some of the blood was not blocked by the formation of The Royal Guards…'

Indeed. The blood contaminated by Death Energy might look like normal blood, but with a though from Nathan, the Death Energy would rampage silently, destroying any sign of life it can reach! And the formation didn't block dead objects, so they passed it without a problem and merged into The Blood Orb, corrupting it even further to the point of no return.

Soon, the huge Blood Orb turned completely solid, and shattered into many pieces. Archbishop Valdis continuously vomited blood, as he suffered a heavy backlash due to his deep connection with The Orb.

The Formation in the surrounding deactivated, and The five Lieutenants immediately took action, and bound The Archbishop in Sealing Chains, effectively turning him into a mortal.

***

Nathan saw that The Archbishop was captured, and he sighed in relief, even though he was in a lot of pain, but the worst was not over, at least for him.

[Dragonborn Combat Mode Duration: 00:00]

Nathans Wings turned into motes of black light and got absorbed by his body, and he turned back to his Human Form, and an extremely sever backlash arrived!

Nathan felt like he was hit by a truck. He was in so much pain that his senses stopped working all together. He could no longer see or hear anything as his head kept ringing.

Nathan fought desperately to stay conscious, but he was quickly overwhelmed and lost conscious.

"NATE! Nate! what happened?!" Sophie immediately freaked out.

Aunty Solina quickly arrived and fed Nathan a powerful Healing Pill, which caused his fleshly wounds to heal quickly, but that did little to ease the agonizing pain, which caused him to squirm even while knocked out.

Aunty Solina comforted Sophie, "Calm down, he will be fine. It is the backlash of his transformation."

"But he is in so much pain! Can't we do anything for him?" Sophie looked at Aunty Solina pleadingly.

Aunty Solina shook her head, "I am sorry. It is a price he has to pay for the power he received. Few things can aid him, and none of those are available right now…"

Sophie tightly hugged Nathan's trembling body, hoping to comfort him ever so slightly…

After all, if Nathan hadn't stopped President Magnus, Grandpa would have been forced to reveal himself prematurely, ruining everything they had planned!

President Magnus might have had the prowess of a Low-Level Third Stage cultivator in single combat, he was still a High-Level Third Stage Cultivator, who could put enormous pressure on Aunty Solina!

The Skeleton also returned to Nathan's side as soon as he lost conscious, but Sophie shook her head, "Go absorb as many bodies as you can. We are in not in danger, not yet."

The Skeleton stared at Sophie with its hollow eyes, and nodded, accepting the order.

***

After securing Archbishop Tallis, The Captain of The Royal Guard turned toward the masked people, who played a critical role in capturing the prisoner alive. Even the Royal Palace did not expect the presence of an Archbishop here, hence why he was sent.

"In respect to your strength, I will not ask for your names, but we will be taking the prisoner with us." The Captain stated firmly.

"Hmm… Surely, your superiors are not so stupid to think that we would give up what we fought for so easily…" Grandpa spoke with an amused tone. 

"Of course not. You are authorized to loot everything in the battlefield and inside the building. But the Archbishop and his belongings are off limits." The Captain said.

"I can sense a 'but' coming…" Grandpa said. He was curious as to what their purpose was. It was already strange that The Royal Guard had showed up instead of The City Guard.

The Captain stared at the masked man in front of him for a long moment, "Someone is asking to meet 'him'. Should he accept, he will receive all the items on his person, as well as every bit of information we extract from him."

Grandpa was inwardly surprised, but he didn't show it on his face, "And, who is this person seeking to meet?"

The Captain looked at a distant figure in tattered clothes who was hugged tightly by another masked figure, "They grow up so fast, don't they?"

Grandpa's expression changed. The Royal Court was aware of Nathan's special identity! This could put Nathan in unprecedented danger, so much that even he won't be able to protect him from all those who come to snuff him out!

But there were good news. It didn't seem like they were aware of his true identity. Merely that he was special in some way.

"The decision is not mine to make. We will wait until he wakes up. Then, we can discuss this further." Grandpa answered after some thought. He could not make this decision for Nathan. He had already noticed, but the young Prince was starting to show signs of surpassing him in regards of insight and foresight.

The Captain nodded in acceptance, "That is agreeable. Then both sides will move our highest ranking members to a place we both feel safe, along with the prisoner, and wait for him to wake up."

Grandpa nodded, and informed the Assassins to loot everything they can find, and they carried out his orders expertly. Many secret vaults were found, and many more hidden valuables were dug out. Grandpa knew that Nathan already had plans that would use up the vast amount of resources they found, and he was eager to find out the details.

After everything was done, with the help of The Royal Guards, they also cleaned up the battlefield, even taking the corpses with them.

After a brief discussion, both parties agreed to move to an inn at the edge of the Inner District with only their high ranking members.

Sophie also tagged along, absolutely refusing to leave Nathan's side, even under the terrifying presence of a Captain of The Royal Guard!

The inn was a very ordinary wooden building with many floors delicate carvings all across the walls, depicting epic battles and mighty legends!

After renting a room, everyone sat in silence, patiently waiting for Nathan to wake up.

Hours passed one by one, and before long, the horizon was starting to brighten, when Nathan finally showed signs of awakening!

"Urg…! My head feels like it is about to explode…" Nathan groggily sat up, his vision still blurry, but he was starting to get used to it.

Sophie wanted to jump on him and make sure he was alright, but she held herself back. This was an important meeting, so she gave him a reminder, "We are in a meeting with The Captain of The Royal Guard."

Nathan turned his head, and noticed the six armored men in the room. He looked at Grandpa inquisitively, and he told Nathan of everything that happened after he fainted.

Nathan pondered on the proposal, 'We cannot force them to hand over the prisoner… and I doubt they would go so far to lay a trap for me… besides, I am curious as to whom ordered The Royal Guard to take action. They responded way too fast. As if they were watching from the beginning…'

Nathan turned to The Captain, "I will stay in this room for three days. Should anyone wish to meet me in that time, they may freely do so. I will be alone, so there is no risk of a trap."

Sophie chimed in, "Then I will stay here as well."

The Captain was not bothered in the slightest, "Then I will relay your decision."

Without another word, they took Archbishop Valdis and left.

"Grandpa, use half of everything we looted to boost the strength and numbers of our Assassins without harming our foundation in any way." Nathan began his plans.

"Yes, Your Highness." Grandpa bowed.

"Aunty, take whatever that remains and use your connections to take over the assets of The Silver River Merchant Company. Shops, mines, trade routes. Everything."

"Leave it to me, little Nate." Aunty Solina accepted her task. To her, Nathan would soon outgrow her soon, so she might as well do everything to help him now.

Nathan nodded in gratitude, "The operation was a success. The Cult won't be able to spare more resources for this region. Sending an Archbishop was already being very generous. Our priority is to expand our influence. The Assassins first task is to establish a reliable information network and expand it. They will become our eyes and ears in the dark, while we keep the attention of everyone else on ourselves. Soon, we will allow them to undertake the [Trail of Darkness], but not yet. Some are bound to fail, and we can't afford such distractions at the moment."

After discussing the plan in detail, everyone left, except for Sophie.

Nathan still had to replenish his Soul Force, so he started circulating his little bit of Soul Force according to [Unchained Abyssal Reaper Manual] as he started to recover slowly…