"Greetings, Captain Mishael! I am Eli from the Forgeworn and Farauld Family. I'll be in your care." Eli politely greeted the Temple knight captain.
Although she had known that Keren and Joab did have a superior prior to the High Priest, it was her first time meeting Mishael and to her surprise, he was far from what she had expected from a captain.
However, she maintained a calm expression and kept the curiosity in her heart as to why and how was Mishael able to lead Joab, Keren, and the rest of the Seirende Temple Knights with his appearance and demeanor.
"How's the situation in the Capital? What can I do to help at this moment?" She then proceeded to ask the most important thing on her plate. "Are we going to join the troops to apprehend the criminals or help the injured?"
"Oh… no, no! We have a different mission this time. But believe me, Milady, this is as important as directly participating in the battlefield." Mishael, with his nonchalant and cheerful attitude, explained to Eli what their task would be.
As there was no more time for Eli to even take a breath, she opted to let Mishael explain the current situation as they rushed to go to the site. With one of Mishael's assistants, their small team boarded through a white-winged beast and headed around the destination.
To Eli's surprise, the destination was not something she had expected to go to - it was a place called The Court of Sinners!
The Court of Sinners was a famous place in Seirende Empire. Its fame was mostly because of the dread every Seirende citizens feel whenever they hear the name.
As the name suggested, the Court of Sinners was actually a large jail complex. There were dungeons, torture chambers, and even an execution site inside the massive grounds. This was the place that no one in the Empire would dream of going to because there were a lot of frightening and evil tales coming from this place alone.
But now, Eli, the subject of the Oracle, and even the Captain of the Temple knights who represent the good of the heavens were now stepping on the grounds where the sinners were punished.
"What could be our purpose here?" Eli was extremely curious as to why they were here when the forces were busy arresting and finding the criminals outside.
"Milady, this is just one of the many destinations we will be visiting from this moment forward." Mishael kept calm and answered Eli's question without a hint of impatience.
Instead, Mishael left the winged beast and his assistant to the open grounds while he led Eli around the Court of Sinners.
As it was already evening, the atmosphere within the court was extremely haunting and terrible. Eli felt like she was entering a haunted house, except that it was for real and with actual evil people inside.
Screech! Boom! Shouts!
There were occasional hair-raising sounds that made Eli's heart jump in shock as she followed Mishael to the place where they had to go.
They threaded the dark hallway where almost no one wanted to enter. She was curious as to why this place had no knights patrolling in its vicinity. Isn't this like a maximum-security prison? Why does it look like it was unmanned?
"Milady, you must be wondering why you could not see any visible knights guarding the courts, isn't it?" Mishael felt Eli's curiosity and initiated the conversation.
"En… It was so unusual. Perhaps, it was because this is my first time entering such a place like this…" Eli did not pretend to be all-knowing and admitted what was on her mind.
"This was because the guards of the palace are all hidden in the dark. Unlike the Imperial Sky Knights who were the symbols of the glorious skies above the Seirende Empire during the daytime, the Imperial Phantom Knights represent the sky of the Empire during the night.
However, these troops were actually not known to the public and even the aristocrats. Only the Temple, the Acting Emperor, and his Successor knew of their existence, which meant, that not even every one of the Imperial Family knew of their existence! To the public, they only knew that the court of sinners was guarded by the creatures of the dark." Mishael explained the nature of the Imperial Phantom Knights as they thread to the pitch dark alleyway.
"Of course, Milady, as one with the most distinguished identity from both the Temple and the Imperial Family, you have all the rights to know of their existence." He added.
"Hmm, I see…" Eli did not comment any further. Mishael hinted in his words that he not only knew of her identity as the Subject of the Oracle but also as a future member of the Imperial Family.
"Now we are here…" Mishael finally came to a stop and pointed at a desolate tower-like sculpture ahead of them.
As they came closer to the sculpture, Eli finally figured out what the sculpture actually is, it was simply a monument, laden with multiple layers of magical arrays. Her dark obsidian eyes brightened with astonishment and interest as she asked Mishael, "This is?"
"One of the Capital's defensive array structures… My Lady, our task is to upgrade all of the defensive array posts around the entire capital and embed into them your Spiritual powers. But that's not all! What we were actually doing was to lay out a grand array to envelop the entire capital, its air, and its grounds!"
It was as if Mishael finally found his time to shine. As he explained the details of their tasks, there was a twinkle of excitement and pride in his golden eyes.
"Milady, here are the specifications of the array we would be trying to construct. This array will be very crucial to our success in controlling the emergence of the spirit fragment that you have recently encountered in the Temple dungeons!" He then took a large scroll of parchment paper out, in it was the intricate blueprint of the massive array structure they would be making as well as the functions that the array had.
"T-this… How in the world are you able to come up with this measure!" The more Eli studied the blueprint, the more they were astonished by the array itself.
She was also wondering how did the captain come up with this array when he was not even participating in the research and investigations they did with the captive dark knights and the cure potion!
"Ehehehe~ of course because I am a genius and I am surrounded by geniuses!" Mishael cheerfully replied, Eli still could not get used to his contrasting personality when compared to his position.
"You see, whatever information your team was able to gather and process, they were all sent to me, who was already immersed in the research about countering the curse. However, unlike Dr. Einz, I focused on countering the curse through magical defensive arrays rather than medicine.
Thinking about it, it was such a fate for this time that two countermeasures were able to be invented at the same time. Of course, the one that made it possible was your emergence as the Subject of the Oracle!
With Milady's powers, our incomplete research finally reached its fruition! This matter, I can only be grateful that the Creator above gave me this honor to witness your abilities!"
Mishael explained a subtle trace of melancholy over his grateful expression could be seen.
"The Great One above could see things that we do not see. The big picture was always in His sight. All we could do was to follow His commissions and witness how splendid His plans were as we journey through them." Eli concluded with a calm expression.
After that, the two proceeded to study and implement the array. Like scholars brought about by the circumstance, the two carefully studied each element that would ensure them the success of the grand array in work.
As despair and chaos roamed the land, and little sparkles of hope emerged from the same circumstance, the situation in the Vesala estate was far from what the Duke and the Empress had expected.
"Visam, Das! C'mon, what is the situation right now? Roman and Callan were already doing their best to give us an opportunity to escape! What's taking us for so long!" Duke Maxim almost showered the two distressed dark nights with spit as he angrily pressured them to finish constructing the teleportation array to the East territory.
But their faces turned more anxious as they tried to insert their cursed power into the teleportation array once again. They have already constructed the array earlier but they do not know why, but the array won't start no matter how they try.
Visam and Das looked at each other and both subconsciously took a nervous gulp. If there was no problem at their side, then that only meant one thing…
The teleportation array in the Eastern territory was destroyed by the invaders as of this moment!
