Epic Of The Demonic Sage

Lucius felt a bit better upon seeing the attitude of Gabriel. The man was not like many of the nobles he had heard about before. Even in his past world, there were many people who would be hypocritical about themselves and would act differently.

"I will not disappoint you father," Lucius said with determination in his eyes.

"Very well. Collect the amount you want from the steward in the morning. I'll give him the permission." Gabriel said.

Lucius nodded his head and the three of them along with Kiana got busy eating dinner. After a little bit more chit-chat, they all went to their bedrooms, while Lucius sat down to meditate.

"Ah, this is much better. Thankfully Delia was able to heal the damage or I would have had to wait much longer. Though I cannot get injured again, she is likely to get suspicious if I keep on turning up with the same kind of injuries." Lucius muttered to himself.

A couple of minutes later, he appeared in the empty space where his soul was located. It still floated there with its eyes closed and the mark on its back faintly glowing. Lucius inspected his soul for any abnormalities before beginning his task.

This time he was a bit more careful and used the formula with a few modifications and started to test out the coordinates he got to make a hell imprint. Over the night, the illusory image appeared over his body twice, but Lucius stopped it before it ever got close.

He knew this would not succeed and these attempts would only get him injured again. Lucius only wanted to go ahead with the formation of the hell imprint if he was a hundred percent sure of it succeeding.

He was already taking a risk by practicing here, as he did not know if the gods in this world would interfere. Though it didn't seem like that. He had not even heard of any antagonists of the church till now either.

Well, he did hear about the tribals but they were more of a rival than an outright antagonist. What Lucius was looking for was someone like the great Barrom clan who opposed the theocracy of Thara in his past world.

Lucius was betting on the fact that if a power like that existed here, there was a 90% chance they would have certain links with hell too. And if that was possible, then it was also possible for him to source their unique coordinates of the hell.

After about three hours Lucius felt tired and decided to stop, falling into a deep sleep.

***

Far from the lands of Etara, at the capital of the Grantz kingdom, there existed the grand cathedral of Alana.

Within this very cathedral, a few old men were having a discussion.

"Archbishop Franklin, has there been any new developments on your side?" An old man dressed in the robes of Archbishop asked.

"The region has been mostly calm but there have been reports of certain new substances that have gained use among the lower strata of the citizens." Archbishop Franklin replied.

"And what kind of substances are these? The… addictive kind?" Another Archbishop asked.

"We do not know if they are addictive yet, but they do have the effects of providing a sense of relief and calm to the user." Archbishop Franklin answered.

"What do you think of this Cardinal Lumen?" The first Archbishop who had spoken earlier said.

The cardinal who had been listening with his eyes closed till now opened them and took a deep breath. His face was old and freckles were visible on it.

~cough~

The old man lightly coughed before speaking.

"We have dealt with these things a few times before, Archbishop Franklin. Just follow the same procedure. If it is found to be addictive, we condemn it to be forbidden and send a decree to the king.

If it is not, but harms the people, it shall be restricted and the rest will be left to the king. But if it is any of the above, tithe shall be levied on it and the production methods are to be surrendered to the church." Cardinal Lumen spoke, with a clever glint in his eyes.

"It shall be done as you said so, cardinal." Archbishop Franklin replied.

"Anything else to report from the others? If not I shall go, these old bones are not going to last long." Cardinal Lumen replied.

"We got a letter from the Royal court. It was sent by them in lieu of a noble, a count by the name of Gabriel Inanis." Archbishop Marcus said.

"Oh? And what were the contents of the letter?" Cardinal Lumen questioned.

"It was about a request to dispatch a bishop to heal the Count's son. We've already completed the request and the count has also paid the tithe promptly." Archbishop Marcus replied.

"What would happen to a Count's son? Did he indulge himself in the carnal pleasures too much?" Cardinal Lumen asked with a hint of ridicule in his voice.

"No cardinal. Rather, it was something legitimate this time that I'm also a bit concerned about." Archbishop Marcus said.

This time all the other members of the circle were also interested in this and paid attention to Marcus's words.

"Please do tell more, archbishop." The Cardinal said before coughing.

"The boy was injured in one of the battles against the army of Gisir, but that is not what concerned me. Rather, it was how the boy was injured. Not only did he sustain injuries and was paralyzed, he was even cursed… by the poison of the tribals of Farlands." Archbishop Marcus revealed.

Murmuring started in the room after hearing of the mention of tribals. They all knew about them and some of them had even gone to the Farlands themselves to preach. They had seen the horrors that were the tribals.

"And how is the boy after that? The curse of those tribal gods is not easy to dispel." Cardinal Lumen asked.

"The boy's body was healed but his memory is lost. Thankfully his mental state is said to be normal and he's been handling it all well. But the question still stands… did the kingdom of Gisir ally with the Tribals?"