-=[Inquisitor Kraze Kodea, Third Squadron Captain]=-

Captain Kodea felt the ground vibrate as her and her men stepped into a large cavern beneath the castle. Normally, one squadron of the temple of Inquiry would be enough to take down this old castle, but High-Inquisitor Rhondarius made her Captain just for tonight since Captain Jillius and other far more experienced, well-known Inquisitors were in the city trying to dissuade the angry crowds of mortals that Ash Sparks wasn’t the temple’s chosen one.

Kraze felt very nervous about her first duty as Captain but she was certain that the six high-cultivators under her command could destroy almost anything in their way.

“Welcome to our Citadel, Inquisitors!” A girly voice announced from a bronze communication pipe overhead. “I am Baroness Arianna Manning-Sparks. In front of you stands the organiser of tonight's events that you were looking for, the great leader of our unkillable celesteel legion. You may bow!”

Captain Kodea squinted at the short, armoured girl. It had to be Ash Sparks! Kraze recognized little silver-blue hair peeking from underneath the helmet. Two pairs of silver eyes shined through the eye slits. Sparks stood in the middle of the cavern, surrounded by about a hundred soldiers dressed in celesteel. A flat, shimmering plane separated the girl and her men from the Inquisitors. Freakishly enough, as far as Kraze could see through the blinding shimmer of the shield-plane, the girl and the armoured men didn’t appear to have a Dantian at all! Kraze had no idea what sort of foul art could conceal Dantians like that. Perhaps it was a side-effect of the brilliant shield or some rare servitor belonging to the Magistrate.

“Baroness? Really?” Kraze spoke as calmly as she could, walking forward with a small smile, six high-cultivators entering the cavern in her steps. “Since when did you and Ash Sparks become Barons?”

“Since we took control of the Magisterium and the Guilds! Magistrate Manning is now our peon as are the Heads of the Guilds. The people of the Gold city believe that Ash Sparks is their prophesied saviour.” Arianna’s voice answered from the pipe, echoing across the cavern. “All that’s left to cull is your pathetic, miserable cult. You won’t be able to harm us tonight, Inquisitor. The letter sent by our geisha was a trap that you have foolishly walked into. Do you see that shield-plane in front of you? The Magisterium Citadel is set to full Deathstorm Ward! It cannot be taken tonight!”

“What?!” Inquisitor Kodea inhaled and the smile started to slide off her face. There were no lies in these words. How?! The servitor at the compound gate had scanned Ash Sparks. She was weak. Pathetically so. She was no high-cultivator, no Immortal! Yet here she stood, armoured in celesteel, surrounded by nearly a hundred men. These girls were mad. They had sacrificed their safety ahead of the Deathstorm just to fight the Inquisition!

Screams resounded from the stairwell. Kraze recognized the voices of the Second Squadron.

“Did you feel that vibration? Hear those screams? Your other squadrons are done for. You’re the last squadron for us to snack on.” Arianna commented.

Captain Kodea paled.

“Bow, Inquisitor,” the highborn’s voice ordered.

“You... dare order me?!” Kraze uttered.

“I do. Do you know why? You’ve already lost the game. I can destroy the compound of Boundless Chorus at a moment’s notice.”

“H-how?” Kraze trembled.

A servitor spirit of Celes Rada flashed through one of the walls, spun a circle in the air above the Inquisitors and landed on the shoulder of Ash Sparks. Captain Kodea stared with dawning horror at the ferret phantom. Lord Rhondarius said he would kill geisha Rada for her crimes as soon as she opened the door! How could Celes Rada still be alive?!

“Third Squadron Captain... Crafty Seer of the Countless Boundless Geomatrices.” The voice of Arianna suddenly sang the Captain’s true name.

Kraze’s remaining confidence shattered at these words.

She was betrayed. The highborns knew everything, even knew her true song-name. How?!

“Oh! High-Inquisitor Kraze Kodea - my congratulations on your promotion!” Arianna laughed. “You are now in charge of the Temple of Inquiry.”

“What?!” Kraze barked, sniffing the air. Baroness Manning was telling the truth! But... surely there were others in front of her. Surely?! Kraze sniffed herself and tried to remember the rules. There were at least forty people in front of her for the title of High-Inquisitor.

Were all of the Inquisitors above me disabled overnight, unable to adjudicate?! What happened to Lord Pikoss?! How could he end up dead?! He is an Immortal!!!

Her hands started to shake as panic seized her body.

“Tick tock, High-Inquisitor,” Arianna said. “Did you forget what I said?”

“W-what?” Kraze trembled.

“One of our men is currently holding a case with six hundred and twenty five beast cores in it. He is one thousand elbows in the clouds, right above the compound of Boundless Chorus. If you do not surrender to me… I will order him to ignite the cores and drop the case down on the compound. Even if you send a servitor to warn the cult now, it won’t get there in time. Do you know what six hundred and twenty five beast cores can do to all of your pretty temples, High-Inquisitor? Just a single beast core detonation knocked out High-Administrator Han for a day. Do the math, Inquisitor. This is six hundred times as many cores!”

“Captain, we should attack them!” Inquisitor Kelestikus Jubz grabbed Kraze by the shoulder. “I’m certain that our spheres can punch through that shield!"

“No,” Kraze uttered. She smelled the truth in Arianna’s words. “No. We don’t know where Arianna is hiding and Sparks is surrounded by a hundred highborns! Stand down! This is an order!”

“So, what’s it going to be?” Arianna asked. “Will the Temple of Inquiry keep harassing us or will you sign an affidavit of your surrender to the will of the new Gold city Barony and declare Ash Sparks an officiated Saint of the Gold city?”

Baroness Sparks took a step forward closer to the shield wall, tapping her chest with a celesteel glove.

“I… I...” Kraze choked.

“You imbecile! She has to be lying! I’ll execute Sparks myself!” Inquisitor Jubz raised his hand. Kelestikus Jubz didn’t have an absolute truth sense like Kraze. He acted as his heart desired. A small celesteel sphere shot from his hand at incredible speed, going right through the servitor-made shield. It bore into the eye-slit in the helmet punching through the eye of Ash Sparks with a noisy clang of celesteel meeting celesteel.

“Stand down! I order you to stand down!” Kraze desperately yelled, turning. “Hold this idiot down! He’ll ruin everything! I can smell that Arianna is telling the truth!”

The other Inquisitors grabbed the man, slamming him into the ground.

“Pffha ha ha ha.” Arianna laughed. “Pathetic! Look!”

Kraze turned back to Baroness Sparks and her legion. She saw that Baroness Sparks remained upright, as if a celesteel sphere through her eye didn’t even bother her. A single silver eye shined back at the last Inquiry Squadron.

“Is that all you got? Want to try again? Go ahead, I dare you to show me your might!” The voice of Arianna resounded from the pipe.

Kraze paled further.

What sort of a hellbound monstrosity was Sparks? A celesteel sphere through the eye would have instantly put a high-cultivator of commission! Surely the girl wasn’t an Immortal that survived the hells!

"So? Shall I send the case full of beast cores from the sky down to the compound?” Arianna’s voice asked.

“The Temple of Inquiry bows to your might, Baroness Manning-Sparks!” Kraze yelled, trembling. “As acting High-Inquisitor, in the name of the Temple of Inquiry, I officially hereby drop all charges levied against your fiancee Ash Sparks-Manning!”

“Very well, I won’t drop the cores,” Arianna said.

“You… you won’t? But how can you communicate with your men so quickly?! Surely a servitor would not be able to make it from here to the compound this fast!” Kraze stammered.

“A girl never shares her secrets,” Arianna laughed. “If you must know - we possess means of instant communication with our men. How else would we be able to cut down Inquisitors across the entire city all at once to elevate you to High-Inquisitor? You know, it wasn’t very hard to find them. They were being rather annoying and noisy, spreading lies, telling OUR citizens to disperse."

Kraze gulped. Arianna was telling the truth. The temple of Inquiry had been played for fools, destroyed utterly.

“Unfortunately, since the Temple of Inquiry attacked our Citadel and one of your men just tried to murder my heart's chosen one… I find you all guilty of Treason against the Magisterium.” Arianna declared.

“But… but I’ve dropped the charges!” Kraze croaked. “What more could you possibly want?”

“I want all of you all to swear on your Qi that you won’t harm me, my fiancee or the Sparks family. Also, I want you to declare allegiance to me as your Baroness, of course,” Arianna’s voice replied. “It’s just one little mercantile pact and an oath, that’s all. Nothing too painful.”

Kraze gulped.

“We have to fight!” Inquisitor Kelestikus frothed on the floor. “It’s a trick! We can take them! The compound will survive, prevail, rebuild if need be!”

Ash Sparks snapped her gloved hand. A hundred armored men moved at once in perfect, impossible synchronicity taking one step forward, celesteel swords at the ready.

“Shut it! Shut the Qi-ss up, Kelestikus!” Kraze hissed, waving her arm at the advancing men. “Look at how they’re moving! You think that the seven of us can really stop a hundred highborn high-cultivators who can hide their Dantians?”

“But…” Kelestikus muttered. “They could be weaklings! Commoners!”

“Lowborns aren’t permitted to wear celesteel, imbecile!” Kraze wailed. “This has to be the entire Manning family and a few others to boot! Look at how they’re moving in unison, like an arcane Legion from the Warring Era! They must have been training, preparing for this exact moment for decades in secret!”

“This is a trick!” Inquisitor Kelestikus spat. “You’re a mere Scribe, Kodea! I should be in charge of this squad!”

“The Mannings had pulled one on us,” one of the older men holding Kelestikus down said solemnly. “It doesn’t matter who’s in charge. We’re boned either way. I can’t smell how high-star they are at all, because of the damn shield. It’s a hundred warriors of unknown power plus the Deathstorm Ward… versus seven of us. Their leader just survived a celesteel sphere through the eye. She didn’t even pass out. Didn’t go down for a second. She is clearly a well-trained Immortal. It doesn’t matter if that’s Ash Sparks or some Immortal that looks like her - she is clearly beyond our powers. My vote is to surrender.”

“We can’t submit to such insane terms! I refuse...” Kelestikus fought against the others that held him.

“Knock him out,” Inquisitor Kodea ordered, tired of the disobedient idiot who clearly didn’t value his life or the precious scroll archives and numerous lives of the people in the cult compound.

One of the Inquisitors slammed a fist down onto Kelestikus’ head and the man slumped into unconsciousness.

Kraze exhaled.

“What’s it going to be, High-Inquisitor Kodea? Do we have to cut all of you down now?” Arianna’s voice asked.

“We… we will say the oaths! We surrender!” Kraze said.

“I want all of you to declare your intentions!” Arianna demanded.

“We surrender. We will say the oaths,” the other Inquisitors spoke.

“Excellent. I can smell the truth in your words. Take off your servitor bracelets and put all of your lovely celesteel balls into the provided bag.” Arianna ordered.

An armoured man stepped into the cavern from one of the tents on the side with a bag. Try as she might, Kraze couldn't smell, couldn't see the man’s Dantian. All she could determine was that he had a servitor intersecting his body!

High Inquisitor Kodea took off her servitor bracelets one by one and dropped them in the bag.

The six of her men followed her, disarming themselves and the knocked out Inquisitor.

Kodea sniffed. Not once in its annals of history had the Temple of Inquiry had suffered such a catastrophic defeat.