City of Sin

Book 4, 122

Wish

The bone was glowing with pale light, while the two pieces of meat were actually still moving. Just looking at the idols made him feel a roar deep within his soul, and the stones actually seemed to be swirling. Even the rotting liquid had a life of its own. Every one of these items was a top-tier offering!

Many years after losing all his power, Saint Lawrence still had nine top-tier offerings to just give out. Richard almost burst with excitement at the thought of how much he would be able to earn when he reached that stage. Sadly, time was limited. He quickly grabbed one of the stones that were almost as large as his fist and returned to the hut.

Lawrence had already switched tools, a magical pen now in each hand. These pens constantly zipped across Beye’s skin and flesh, and the wounds they brushed across seemed to be healing quickly. He didn’t even glance over, “It’s your lucky day, kid, watch me repair her arteries and veins. Hey, don’t be anxious; you can ask whatever you want, my concentration can’t possibly be broken by the likes of you.”

“Why don’t we just find a priest?” Richard couldn’t help but ask.

“The inhabitants of Daxdus command a mixed power of darkness and chaos. Darkness is something most priests can repel, but the power of chaos is a natural enemy of divinity. Healing spells cast on these injuries could even backfire, and powerful ones like Restoration might just kill her. I’m slowly eliminating the power of chaos within to bring her back from the edge. Grr, this is so tiring. Is it that fun to get beaten up by a legend?”

“But I killed him,” Beye rebutted.

Lawrence was about to rage again, but he looked at her open chest and two unmoving hearts and sighed, “Alright. You have these Lifesbanes now, you’ll just die before you get to me next time.”

“Can’t the Eternal Dragon control the power of chaos?” Richard asked, “Isn’t there a church inside this city?”

“The church building here was only built recently, and the grand priest there is much weaker than those in Norland. They don’t enter wars without reason anyway.”

However, this only ignited suspicion within Richard’s heart. The high priestess herself had sent Flowsand with him to join a planar war, and Io and Nyra followed after. Without such support, he wouldn’t have been as successful as he was today. Although they claimed to be neutral, they had assisted him multiple times under the guise of equal trade. Even though he had paid a great price for what he received, he didn’t believe there were no others with the wealth to swallow that cost.

That brought his attention to something else, “Saint Lawrence, why don’t you use your offerings to trade for healing from the Eternal Dragon? You should have enough, no?”

Lawrence suddenly glared at Richard, sparks of lightning flashing through his eyes for a moment. However, his gaze immediately turned dull and he buried his head back into his work, “You’re still young and have a great future ahead, the Church seems like an overbearing figure to you. To me, the Eternal Dragon isn’t invincible. You’ll eventually realise how hard it is to be blessed by the gods. Even if I gave everything I had to the Church, it would only give me three to five years of life. Then I would have to continue fighting constantly to find sacrifices, but the best case would be another three years. Is there a meaning to living like that? I refuse to bow down to anyone, why would I bow to that old dragon?”

Richard’s eyes widened at this answer, his mouth falling open in surprise.

“You’ll understand in the future, kid. Remember, the only real power is what you can hold in your hands. The rest is all fake, all fa—”

“Tch,” Beye interrupted, “Ignore him for now. That problem’s far into the future. Come, you should see the structure of my body. Do you notice my internals are different from ordinary humans? This will be you in the future. Our bloodlines affect more than just our strength; the greater their power, the more different your body is from normal. The bloodline I inherited is one of my family’s two great bloodlines— the nightmare shade. Agamemnon inherited the ancient titan bloodline. You should understand how bloodlines work, because they’re important in crafting grade 4 runes.”

“Kid, pay attention!” Lawrence suddenly piped up, holding one of Beye’s unbeating hearts. His hand moved swift as the wind, slicing off the power of chaos on the surface without tearing the heart off the body. The surging blood was sealed by his mana, and after some time it slowly started to beat once more.

By the next day, Richard could already assist Lawrence in his tasks. The day after that, he helped out with the unimportant organs to speed up Beye’s recovery. On the fourth and final day of his stay in Saint Lawrence’s house, he personally sewed up Beye’s chest and left her whole once again.

As strong as she was, the Lady of the White Night couldn’t take it anymore as she gave in to her fatigue. Richard covered her body up with a blanket, walking out with a heavy heart. Why was it that someone who could even kill legendary beings wasn’t living as happy as she should?

“What are you thinking of, kid?” Lawrence asked as he threw himself onto a chair.

“Just wondering whether I’ll become like that one day,” he answered.

The old man suddenly turned serious, shaking his head with a sigh, “That isn’t something to worry about. Think about when the person you treasure most in your life becomes like this, and you don’t have the power to help them.”

Richard nodded, going silent for a while. Eventually, another question surfaced in his mind, “Why did a saint runemaster go fight a legendary mage?”

“There are some people in this world you’ll want to kill no matter what. I didn’t care if the enemy was a legend or a god, I just knew I had to fight.”

Richard nodded, able to detect an unquestionable resolution in the old man’s gaze.

“Right. Kid, let me ask you something.” Lawrence suddenly sat upright, his eyes shining with a radiance that made him lose ten years of age, “Exactly how confident are you in crafting the grade 5 Mana Armament?”

“Uhh...” Richard hesitated for a while, “It’s... hard to say. After all, I still need to be level 20 at minimum to get there. And that blueprint you gave me, there were... some flaws to it.”

“Great!” the old man suddenly jumped in front of him, shaking him with frightening force, “You actually noticed there were flaws, there’s hope in you completing it! Great, just great! I’ll definitely find a way to live a few more years so I can see the rune done!”

Richard suddenly frowned, a sudden fear overtaking his heart, “Did you add flaws on purpose?!” What would happen if he didn’t spot these flaws and crafted the rune exactly according to the blueprint?

Thankfully, Lawrence just blushed a little, “No, I just... didn’t complete it. I didn’t really expect anyone to create it, so I just doodled what I could. Well anyway, I want to ask... If, if one day you finish the full grade 5 Mana Armament, can you... Can you...”

Richard immediately understood the reason for the old man’s hesitation, “If I succeed one day, it will be known to everyone as a rune designed by Saint Lawrence.”

“That... That’s really... How do I thank you? Why don’t I drug Beye and let you bed her?” The scene of the old man blushing was a strange sight.

“What? NO!”