City of Sin

Book 7, 2

Moon Of Pain

The moment Richard pushed the blue moon into orbit, the entirety of Faust shook like it hadn’t in decades. Those with keen instincts instantly noticed an abnormal fluctuation of mana in the city, as though an alchemic machine had just started after an unknown period of dormancy.

Most of the city panicked; the change could be a good thing, but it could also be a huge disaster. There were far too many secrets in Faust, and the humans occupying it hadn’t decoded much in the past few centuries.

Even as the powerhouses of the city started scanning everything, someone on the streets suddenly screamed, “The Rainbow of the Moons!”

The Rainbow of the Moons was one of the symbols of Faust itself, and also one of its many mysteries. The moons had been revolving constantly for all the time they were known, completing a full cycle every 36 years. The phenomenon was gorgeous, but there were warnings written on stone tablets everywhere in the city stating that one should avoid staring at it for a long time. The moons had a strange power that could burn a mage’s mana or a warrior’s energy, draining their powers until they were only a husk of their former selves.

Many people thus avoided looking at the rainbow when they could, but with the scream everyone’s attention was drawn up above. And once they noticed, they could not look away. Up on the Rainbow, the blue moon slowly separated, falling down towards Faust itself.

Was the Rainbow of the Moons going to break apart? Many were stunned by the sight, forgetting to hold on as the quaking of the city grew more violent. The Rainbow was a forbidden zone of Faust, with nobody able to fly near it. One lost control of their energy as they approached, and even legendary powerhouses were no exception to the rule. Once close enough, all energy would explode and the offender would burn up from within. To this day, nobody had gotten within a kilometre.

Amidst the stunned silence, the trajectory of the blue moon gradually became clear. It was heading towards the floating island of the Archerons!

A flash of lightning eclipsed the sky, a machete zipping across to intercept the moon. However, the blue moon only lit up and illuminated the weapon, causing its magical aura to dim until it turned into a piece of scrap iron and fell down.

The scene caused many to recall when humans had first entered this city. Some people had wanted to dig up the walls and earth for the purpose of research or pure greed, but ordinary methods had failed to even make a dent. Those who tried suffered grave punishments, from personal harm to the deaths of entire families by the will of the Eternal Dragon.

And today, the blue moon of the Rainbow had fallen off on its own. It couldn’t be considered to be owned by anyone, and conversely anyone could obtain it. An original part of Faust, one of the seven moons of the rainbow... This was something even more valuable than the Tears of Anubis from the depths of the Abyss. This was a massive opportunity!

Dozens of weapons were shot out in an instant, covered in all sorts of saint auras. Some of them didn’t even have the energy of a saint; their masters had thrown them out just for fun. The blue moon shone brightly upon them, wiping out all these auras alongside the enchantments on the weapons themselves. All of the weapons fell to the ground, having lost anything magical about them.

“MY SWORD!” someone suddenly screamed with horror, causing those who were about to follow up to hesitate. The weapon was one’s most important tool, and most people spent enormous amounts on theirs. Losing them would be a heavy blow.

It was at this point that a loud whistle rang out, a seven-coloured longsword flying through the sky directly towards the blue moon. At the same time, an onerous chant filled the air as magical chains appeared out of thin air and weaved into an enormous cage trying to block the moon.

The longsword was tainted by the blue light as well, but it released powerful flames that resisted the effects and consumed the moon’s energy. It shot right towards the moon, but it quickly passed through and flew out the other side; the blue orb fluctuated for a moment, but then it returned to its original state.

Was it not a physical object? This was another subversion of expectations. Everyone assumed that the seven moons were physical energy sources that powered the magical arrays of Faust. Now, it seemed they were just an accumulation of energy.

The sword drew an arc in the air as it flew back to an ordinary-looking middle-aged man. He looked at the moon strangely before observing his now-faint weapon, finding many tiny holes upon it. The damage was much more serious than he had expected, to the point that the weapon would never fully recover. He hadn’t expected the moon to be so overbearing as to affect a legendary weapon, but his eyes that twitched in pain quickly lit aglow as well; this indicated just how valuable the blue moon was.

By this point, the cage of magic chains had completely encircled the blue moon and locked it in. The moon failed to just phase out of this, but then its brilliance slowly shone through from within as the cage began to disintegrate. Suddenly breaking through, it seemed to sense crisis as it accelerated its flight and continued heading towards the Archeron island. In the distance, an old mage suddenly coughed up blood; his legendary spell had been broken, and that carried consequences.

“Ooh!” A voice suddenly rang out of nowhere, a big hand breaking space and sticking out of the void to grab the flying moon. However, it suddenly shrank down to the size of a fist and seemed to gain substance, the fingers bouncing off with a dull clang.

A man in full-body armour stepped out of the void, looking quite strange with the mix of parts to his suit. Different styles of equipment had been randomly put together, and there were spikes that looked like devil horns all over the metal. The man himself looked middle-aged, his pale face and dark circles making him look more like an overworked labourer than a legendary being.

The new entrant turned towards the moon, no aura flaring up around him as his entire person turned into a flash that gave chase. By this point, the moon itself was effectively a ray of light as it zipped across the sky and finally entered the Archeron island, heading straight towards the meditating Richard and disappearing between his eyebrows.

The man giving chase saw the blue moon entering Richard’s body and didn’t hesitate as he grabbed out, planning to crush Richard’s heart. The moon was the only thing in his eyes right now. However, a layer of faint golden light suddenly appeared around the edge of the floating island and blocked his palm.

The inhabitants of Faust were no strangers to this barrier. It was the protection the Eternal Dragon afforded to all floating islands, but most of the time it didn’t play much of a role. The barrier didn’t significantly affect those who had the favour of the old dragon, and with all the families of Faust being worshippers it was only a formality at best. However, the man bounced back from the impact and many of the thorns on his breastplate were twisted, the entire front half of the armour flattening out from the sheer force of the impact.

The thin film of light wasn’t damaged at all, while the middle-aged man himself recovered from a bout of dizziness in the blink of an eye. He flew straight above the protective film and glared hatefully at the invincible defence, shouting towards Richard, “Kid! I don’t care who you are, just hand that thing over now. If you don’t, I’ll kill everyone on your island!”

Richard slowly opened his eyes, a blue glow flashing within the emerald. Still seated, he looked up at the man outside and asked, “Who the fuck are you?”