BXBX NOVEL Chapter 174: Big Plans
The powers below the 75th floor were, of course, shaken by this, but most of the higher gods were unable to make a decisive attack because of their respect for Nyx and the fear that accompanied it.
In the meantime, James had gathered artefacts from the ruined and now ancient Church of the Night and placed them in the main guild building on the 5th floor.
Some of the artefacts were not suitable for James to use at the moment, most of them were broken and disassembled, and of course, it was obvious who had destroyed the churches, even James himself knew that, let alone Nyx.
The gods and goddesses who hadn't fallen, and especially those who hated Nyx among them, had destroyed the churches and stolen most of the ruins when they were close to crumbling, which told some of the story of how the Fallen Gods had returned.
James had made his plans for the Church of Night known, in short, he planned to complete everything, restoring the church to its former strength was his main goal.
In the meantime, Nemesis herself had come to the main guild hall to collect the broken artefacts or relics and take them to her mother for repair.
Almost every one of the artefacts had been created by Erebus and Nyx specifically to help Desmond. This meant that James himself was the rightful owner of the artefacts.
Datura and Aether had successfully fulfilled every single order that had been given to them. Emperor Ahil gave the rank of Archduke to James within the empire.
The only reason for this was that James would not accept the rank of emperor under any circumstances, and it was made clear by Nyx to the goddess-worshipping Ahil and his family that James was the rightful holder of the throne. Desmond's name was not revealed, and not many gods knew, but the Church of Night, and subsequently every human being who worshipped Nyx, understood the lineage of James.
Everyone knew he was a descendant of the one who founded the Church of Night and the Sun Empire, and Desmond's identity was, of course, kept secret for James' safety, as stated.
This caused every single person connected to the imperial court to begin worshipping James.
James' Holiness status suddenly doubled to 60.000. After this point, James was strangely only able to win one item:
[Crystal of Life(Godly+++++)
This Crystal contains one of the essential essences of the tower, reality. It has been created by the hands of the creators throughout history and has become a Crystal that can be obtained by the most valuable people.
It must be known to the user that the use of the crystal is to turn it into a jewel.
In the hands of the wrong person, the crystal will become a piece of rubbish.
When the crystal is used, it increases the user's vitality by 100%.
When used, the crystal increases the aura of authority around the user by 100%.
This crystal can only be used by the leaders of all things].
When James obtained this crystal, he knew who to give it to.
He somehow managed to get the crystal to Athena in a short time. He could have given this crystal to Ronald, but he knew that the best person for this job was Athena, who had gained a rank in handcraft.
On top of that, James was constantly taking lessons from Vlad himself. As his mastery of the elements had increased during his battle with the catacomb guardian, he had, without realising it, come a long way in the second part of Desmond's Sword Art, the cutting. Vlad had intended to make this path iron so that James would never regress.
According to Vlad, Desmond had mastered 'Disarm and Bluff', the two styles in the 'Capture' section of the Sword Art that were the easiest to learn.
James, on the other hand, was able to master these two styles in two months, practising for almost ten hours every day. Still, things were the same in the first part, the piercing part, James hadn't improved that much since his last 'epiphany'.
Of course, he was still improving, every day he was getting better and better and more consistent in his attacks, but that didn't mean anything.
He still wanted too much, it was greed, he was trying to develop too fast, but he was not 'strong' enough to do it, after all, enlightenment was not so easily achieved.
These were the events of the last three months, and James looked up at the mountain, no longer made of ice, but permanently in possession of a cold ecosystem.
After he had paid the asking price, he owned the mountain itself, and with the orders he had placed, the construction of the huge palace had already begun, James wanted this to be the place where his family would live in the future and where the Church of Night would have its headquarters and the guild would have its main building.
In short, this would be the place where the Black bloodline would continue.
To do this, though, he had to create a rule that Nemesis could stay here, in short, he had to bend the 75th-floor-down rule set by his ancestor.
He had a long, long way to go.
"I never thought I'd come back to this mountain," Emily suddenly said, and the smile on James" aunt's face was obvious.
With these words, James asked Emily a question that he had been wondering for a long time but had not had the opportunity to ask:
"Really, you are my aunt, so you can't have died a long time ago, so how come you appeared on this mountain trapped in a ring?"
After James' question, Emily's spirit turned towards him and said "Of course it's Chaos, he already realised your potential and asked me and I agreed, our whole bloodline agreed, everyone is waiting in various parts of the tower to pass on to you the experience they have gained from certain things. And you found me, your aunt, by chance."
Upon Emily's words, James suddenly realised that the Sword Scabbard to which Vlad's soul was bound had come to him by Chaos.
Chaos himself must have tied the souls of all his ancestors and family members to an item and put it on the tower floors for James to find them.
James was not only surprised when he realised these words, of course, he hoped that one day he would meet his other ancestors, but he still wondered what would become of those he would not find.
After all, James had only reached the 28th floor and he did not know where to find them, after all, he could not find all his bloodline members, his ancestors, by chance any more than he could find his aunt by chance.
"Master Umbra, a message from Mistress Ariel."
James had suddenly heard what Datura had told him, and even if he didn't understand why Ariel hadn't sent him a message directly, he was still curious about the content.
"Tell me," James said, and with that, Datura spoke:
"20. 22:00, same."
James smiled when he heard these numbers and the word same. There was one more thing James had done in the last 3 months.
It was to find someone, James realised that one of the paintings inside the church on the 20th floor was missing. It was not one of the paintings in the main throne room, but it was one of the paintings that was still a gift to the church.
A direct order had been given to Ariel and a few others, and after clearing a few more floors with Ariel, James was completely focused on finding that thief.
What Ariel sent as a message was the floor, time and the place.
Still, punishing the thief was not what he wanted to do.
Even if the stolen painting was not very well guarded, it was still a painting in the second most active church in the Church of Night. It would have required perfect secrecy for someone to enter the church, pass unseen through all those rooms, all those priests and all those nuns, unlock the locked room and steal the painting.
And to slip out of there unnoticed would have required even greater skill.
James was well aware of this, what he wanted to do was to find the thief and make himself a new comrade. In the last three months, James had begged Thanatos to give him a few more servant-master contracts, and in the end, James had received two more.
If he could get the thief to sign one of these contracts, James would have one of the most perfect spies he could ever have.
In short, James would have a shadow. A shadow that will hunt for him, search and perhaps steal information for him.