"Forgive me! Please forgive me!" pleaded a kneeling man.

Aaron snorted through his nose. "When my life was the one at risk, you weren't merciful, you joined my enemies and attacked me. Now that it's yours on the line, I must forgive you, someone who would've killed me without a second thought if you had the power to do so?"

"I was mistaken! I'm sorry, I'm so sorry!" The man started crying.

Aaron's sword went through his heart.

He looked around. He had wasted a lot of time with that man; other prey were awaiting him.

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There were over a hundred and fifty corpses on the ground. Aaron, covered in blood, was sitting on the crate where the Arcanist of the Dark Cloud Clan had stood on before.

Understandably, after Aaron killed so many without getting even scratched, the remaining attackers ran to the forest in a panic. Only the Fire Wolves remained in the Clans Arena.

He was breathing haggardly. He had killed much more than that on his first night in the capital, but the battles then had been much smaller in scale and had some time between them. Here, he had defended himself from the attacks of over two hundred ranged attackers for a long time, while killing anyone he could get close to.

Even for him, the battle had been difficult and exhausting. The only thing that even allowed him to do so was that with the big clans leaving, only two people at the Three Stars level remained, so he had had to deal mostly with One and Two Stars combatants.

Alys was also panting, sitting on the floor, looking a bit lost. She had killed about fifty people and it was taking a toll on her.

He ignored her for now. If she couldn't deal with it by herself, he would talk to her. But getting to terms with being a killer was something best done alone. The lesson stuck better that way.

Soon, he finished resting and started plundering the corpses and the tents that had been abandoned.

The vast majority of the bandits he had eliminated in the capital had been mere pawns, but here he had killed people backed by clans, however small they might be. The profit he made this time was incomparable with the previous one.

By the time he was done, the sun was already up on the horizon. More than half his energy had already recovered, and he estimated that his total wealth would be around fifteen thousand gold coins if he sold everything he had obtained today and added to what he already had.

Today was only his seventh day in Liech. That was an impressive sum to accumulate in a week!

His pillaging done, he sat down again. His next move would only come after Lana finished leveling up.

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While Lana's body and soul were being strengthened by Holy Energy, her consciousness was elsewhere.

She felt as if she were floating in a white infinity that nourished her and inserted information about skills directly into her mind. Not only did she learn new skills, but she also learned how to better use the ones she already knew.

For almost five hours she kept learning until, finally, the voice of the goddess came from all directions.

"Wake up, child."

Lana's consciousness returned to her body. She opened her eyes. She didn't believe what she saw.

Corpses to all sides. Dozens, hundreds of them. And the breeze-windstorm...

He was sitting on a crate, covered in blood, looking bored at it all, like an angel of death who was tired of constant work.

As soon as she saw him, he looked back at her and opened his mouth. But before he could say anything, Lana immediately came out of the sitting position she was in, not to get up, but to get to her knees facing Aaron and bend her body completely until her forehead hit the floor.

As Alys had done before, she now prostrated herself before him.

"Aaron Ironblood, I beg you, accept me as your servant! I swear to the gods that I'll serve you to the best of my ability for the rest of my life, whatever happens! I give you my absolute obedience!"

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[Holy Vow made!]

You promised Aaron Ironblood absolute obedience!

If you break your promise, Holy Judgment will befall you.

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Lana was a fervent Devout and not a woman of half measures. If the goddess wanted her to give herself to Aaron, she would do it completely at the first opportunity!

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Aaron and Alys looked surprised at Lana.

"Why?" asked Aaron.

"The Goddess of Light ordered me to obey you," Lana replied without hesitation, with her forehead still touching the floor.

Aaron frowned. "What if she orders you to kill me tomorrow?"

"Orders without a time limit are absolute," explained Lana. "Her Holiness didn't tell me to obey you until she said otherwise, but to give myself to you and protect you as needed, with no conditions involved. Even if something happens and she says otherwise tomorrow, I'll no longer be able to obey because I already made my Holy Vow today."

His frown intensified. "But won't that make you less of a Devout?"

"No," she replied firmly. "But even if it did, all she could do would be remove my power. The Holy Vow left no openings for me to leave it. I'm already bound to you for all my life."

Aaron looked at Alys, but she just shrugged; she knew little about Devouts or how orders from the gods worked. He turned to Lana again.

"Why did she order you to... What were the words you used? To 'give yourself' to me?"

"You came to save..." She cut off suddenly. "The goddess said that if I answer that question, I can put you in danger. She ordered me to say that she wants your goals of wealth and power to be achieved."

Aaron narrowed his eyes and studied the broken sentence. Did the goddess know that he had come to save the universe? Her later words seemed to indicate so, as she was aligning her interests to those he was trying to pretend to have, achieving wealth and power to himself.

That was worrying. If that entity could notice his true purpose, so could others. He didn't know which side the entities that called themselves gods were in his silent war against Cage. He needed to be more careful with their actions.

"What prevents your goddess from canceling your Holy Vow when she finds it convenient, then ordering you to stab me in the back?" he asked.

He didn't know if that's how Holy Vows even worked, but it had the word "holy" in the name, and in this world, gods had control over Holy Energy.

"She said that you have her word that it won't happen," she said, kind of confirming his suspicions that the gods could remove Holy Vows. "She also said that since she doesn't think it would suffice for you, she proposes an act of goodwill. She'll declare you her Herald of Light, and if she ever goes back on it, the whole world will know her decisions and declarations hold no true value, for she might change her mind with no warning any day. That would be devastating for any god."

Aaron thought about this for a while. At first sight, her "act of goodwill" was pathetic. She could always claim he had betrayed her somehow, and it would be his word against hers. His "betrayal" would show that her decision-making was lacking, but she could spin it in a way to make her a victim and gather the sympathy of her followers.

That said, having a title — any title — would give him an identity in that world. That changed things. Having a publicly acknowledged identity, no matter which, would help him gain trust from people more easily. An identity given to him by a goddess was a great card to play.

So, that begged the question: why would a local divinity go so far for him? He had no doubt she would profit from this, but how?

No matter what her angle was, he concluded he had would gain more than he would lose from this.

"Very well," he said. "Prostrate yourself two more times and call me Patriarch."

She obeyed, and he invited her to the Ironblood Clan.

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[Clan Update]

Lana Seccos has joined your clan!

Members: 3

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[Skill Unlocked]

Name: Check Member

Grade: Heavenly

Description: Reveals the real name, personal rank, class, and energy levels of any clan member.

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The system in that world encouraged clans not only to recruit powerful people but also to grow in numbers. The clan tier rose according to the level of the most powerful member, while new skills were unlocked as the number of members increased.

He used the skill on Lana to test it. A black rectangle appeared over her head with information.

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[Clan Member Check]

Name: Lana Seccos

Personal Rank: Member

Class: Priestess

Energies:

» Three Star Holy Energy (Light)

» One Star Qi

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This was useful to uncover people who had lied to join a clan. When his clan reached nine members, he would also gain the ability to see the members' attributes. At twenty-seven members, the sub-attributes. Such information would be useful for better managing the clan as it grew.

"Very well, get up," he said, and Lana obeyed. "From today onward, you're my maid, or personal attendant, or whatever you prefer to call it. That means you must stay by my side at all times and serve as a deferential maid."

Aaron believed in the maxim to keep friends close and enemies even closer. Until he understood Lana and the entity behind her better, the best place for her was under his constant observation. The primary reason he had accepted her was precisely to learn more about the gods.

Whatever his opinions on beings calling themselves gods in front of him, they were powerful in this world, and he would have to deal with them one way or another eventually. The more he knew about them, the better prepared he would be to do so.

"Yes, Patriarch!" she said immediately. As a Priestess, she had spent years training in servitude, and being deferential wouldn't be difficult for her.

Aaron nodded. "Unlike Alys, you won't have time to get used to your new post. Pay attention, because I will teach you how to serve me!"

Without further ado, he first explained everything that was expected of an ordinary member of the clan. Then he explained her responsibilities and rights as the Patriarch's maid.

Alys also listened carefully, out of curiosity, and felt quite uncomfortable with what she heard. When Aaron spoke of submission to the clan, she hadn't thought the rules were so strict! Basically, Aaron's words were law, and the clan hierarchy was to be followed to the letter.

Lana, as the Patriarch's maid, had greater status than any other clan member other than the Patriarch himself, and even Alys should be respectful to her! Alys, a Four Star Sorceress in her late forties, needed to show utmost respect to an eighteen-year-old Three Star Priestess just because she was the servant of her Patriarch! Not for Lana's merits, but for her mere status!

In Illyria, only the king received such a privilege from a Four Star Cultivator and only because of Imperial Law. Everyone else, including their generals, attendants, and family members, needed to earn the respect!

Only then did Alys understand why Aaron decided not to demand obedience from her immediately. Such a paradigm shift would be very difficult for a Sorceress used to having a certain status because of her position in the Arcane Circle. Lana, on the other hand, a young Priestess accustomed to the hierarchical system of the Goddess of Light, would get used to it much more easily.

Unlike what Alys thought, Lana was also slightly uncomfortable with the level of submission required, but she was convinced that she was obeying the wishes of her goddess and didn't let it shake her.

"Understood, Patriarch!" said Lana submissively.

Aaron smiled. "Good. Now, wake Logan up. Alys, wake Tia up."

"Yes, Patriarch!" the two said in unison.

Lana touched Logan with her hand and said, "The death of death, the end of the ending, the union of loved ones, blooming life. Third Grade Holy Skill: Spiritual Healing!"

Holy Skills were the only ones that needed to be chanted, which Aaron found unnecessarily complicated and time-consuming, even if Lana did it as quickly as possible. He didn't approve of her healing Logan, but since he hadn't forbidden it or made Logan's official status clear to the Ironblood Clan, her actions weren't exactly unloyal.

Holy Energy left her body, and Logan's pale face gained color. Soon after, Logan and Tia woke up. The looks on both faces when they saw the surrounding corpses were of pure panic.

"Pay attention because I'll only explain it once," said Aaron in a firm voice. "Some members of the Guardian Sword clan tried to capture us while Lana was leveling up, so I killed them. Then the king used the Royal Judge to order my death, so I killed the judge and his guards. Finally, some clans and mercenaries tried to kill me and Alys, so I killed them too.

"Now, I am going into the caves to recover the Sky Splitter Sword for myself, because it's something that belongs to the king and nothing would be more pleasurable to me than killing him with his own sword. You don't have to come with me, but until I kill the king, it's better to stay out of the eyes of the local authorities; many people saw us together today. Oh, and Illyria is at war with the Arcane Circle."

"Kill the king?" whispered Alys, amazed.

"War?!" said Tia.

"Murderer!" shouted Logan and stood up. He was about to take his sword out of the scabbard, but Lana placed her hand over his.

"Brother, the goddess ordered me to serve Aaron Ironblood. I have become his maid and a member of the Ironblood Clan," she said gently, but with a decisive tone, looking deep into Logan's eyes.

He looked incredulously from Lana to Aaron and back, then yelled, "Are you out of your damn mind?!"