“Hehe”, Kaden laughed as he held the blade in his hands. “This place was probably best possible choice! The ghosts aided me, this place was full of hate and rage and to begin with Serin was hated probably by most people who knew of him. Now that is made one with this blade!”

Kaden sensed the blade deeply. The blade that used to be relatively ordinary looking, but now was serrarated and uneven shape and gleaming with that pale green glow. He could still feel Serin’s soul scream inside it. In fact, he could observe it with extreme clarity.

“I guess his soul will remain in there for quite a while while its being torn and ground apart”, Kaden thought. “While that happens, it will feed and cause this blade to grow even stronger. I guess it’ll end once his soul used up and what remains is just some mana that cannot be said to be Serin anymore. I have no idea how long that will take, but it seems to be a slow process.”

Kaden felt this was very good way to make Serin suffer and that would only end once his existence had been snuffed out. There was no afterlife for him. Kaden was not even sure, if any god would accept him. Not that he would be surprised, if they did. He would probably have gone to hell, though, but that sort of thing was out of Kaden’s understanding. He was perfectly fine obliterating Serin’s soul slowly and painfully.

“With this blade I will kill all those who wronged me”, Kaden told to himself and raised the blade high. “I will name it… Vengeance!”

It was an interesting weapon indeed. Not that it had just become different shape during the process, but when you held it, you could feel and know your hate better. Kaden could remember the faces of his opponents better. Those that he still did not know, he got some vague feelings. More so, if he listened, he could hear cries of rage in his mind echoing from Vengeance. These were not his, but probably all the hate that people nearby felt. Whisper desiring to inflict suffering to others.

“I guess it is indeed a focal point for vengeance”, Kaden though and smiled. “I will need to experiment and see all its effects eventually. Originally it was only supposed to take in vengeance type mana, let it do its thing and absorb more to grow.”

Kaden continued to examine Vengeance for a moment, but then put it away. There were still things to do. Serin was dead and he mentally erased him from his kill list. That one was completed.

What remained of Serin was a shattered physical body. Kaden had only stabbed him, but the body seemed like it had almost gone through a grinder. Perhaps the ritual had something to do with it, but he could sense some of it was done simply due to the vengeance mana.

“It can rot here for now”, Kaden decided. “I’m not going to even eat him. I’ll be bombing this place too, so no evidence will be left.”

Kaden left the room to search for a good place to set up his base. The manor was now completely silent. The ghosts were gone. Kaden did find a few remaining Serin’s slaves, but they were completely catatonic. He still cut off all their heads just in case.

He also had been a bit worried that the commotion had been noticed outside, but it seemed not to be the case. That mana blast at the end of the ritual for example. He did not realize very few people at all could even sense it and those who could, would often not even be able to tell what it was. The blast and the force itself was well confined in the room.

Kaden relaxed when he picked a room, also in upstairs, which had a window outside. There was nothing out of the ordinary happening. If he pushed the curtains aside a bit, he could easily look outside and look at the target locations.

“Truly a good choice”, Kaden thought as he left the curtains just slightly open, allowing him to watch outside and very small chance for anyone else to see inside.

Now that Serin was dealt with, Kaden’s plan was to just achieve some kind of completion for his mission. He really didn’t care much about it. As to how that was done still eluded him. Defenses at the main targets like city hall and the supply stores was high.

While pondering on this matter, Kaden explored more of the manor. The mayor seemed to have collected quite a large collection of books in a library. Kaden doubted Serin would have had the time or interest. The books were on very wide variety of subjects, but were mostly common grade. There was also an unusual opening next to the book shelves.

Eventually Kaden did find some books on mana systems, but those were generally useless to him. On quick browse through, he realized they didn’t contain much that he didn’t already know.

What was useful was some stuff about magic smithing. There had been a note tied around those specific books. It seemed the mayor had wanted to arrange a personal smith at some point, but it seems Serin got to him before that. The books were useful to Kaden. He had access to quite a bit of them at Corand, but these were very specific and high quality about armors and usage of formations on them.

“Could it be the mayor wanted to arrange some protections for the city?” Kaden thought as he read through some. “Battle armors? These aren’t quite exoarmor plans, but are quite good regardless. I better take these and learn everything I can.”

That wasn’t the only good thing Kaden found. This one was quite a windfall.

“I guess there was a reason why the mayor had dealt with in such a way”, Kaden muttered as he looked at what was likely supposed to have been a hidden door. It was open so Serin had probably found it and left it the way it was. “Perhaps the mayor wasn’t content on being a fringe city mayor and wanted more. Personal smith for battle armor of very high quality would help gearing up your troops. Hidden doors.”

Kaden looked for more things, but he came to realize that was basically all. He remembered Nelsen mentioning about some problems with the mayor and Peil also mentioned resources being taken.

“The mayor obviously opposed everything once his long plans were being messed up”, Kaden thought and went to look inside the path beyond the door. “Perhaps he wouldn’t have had he known what kind of person would be sent to deal with him.”

Perhaps more of the higher ups from Celadon were in it? For a moment he wondered, if some of them would be alive and if he could find them. They could be of help. Then he discarded that plan after thinking it a bit further. They wouldn’t help him. He was planning on wreaking some havoc in the city after all. They might have problem with the military, but thats because their plans were gone because of them. That didn’t mean they would become traitors.

Political situation in Sacronan was probably very similar to Saint Empire. Lots of nobles and influential people trying to climb higher on the ladder causing trouble along the way. Celadon’s mayor probably was lower tier actor anyway compared to the true players. Someone had to have given funds out at the very least. Kaden doubted a minor character like the mayor would be able to arrange all the things by himself.

This was good to know, but nothing he could use. To begin with Kaden wasn’t really experienced in politics nor did he really care about such things, but he figured perhaps political tensions were something he could make use of some day. Those were the things that made powerful people kill each other. Though that came at a cost of weaker people.

“Whatever”, Kaden muttered to himself as he walked along the tunnel. He was feeling quite happy about how things were going. As far as he could tell, the tunnel was leading towards the direction of the city hall. The mayor might have had use for a way to enter there unnoticed.

What was most important is that there were no signs of guards or anyone having used it recently. Could it be that the military personel outside were not even aware of it? Had Serin not informed them of it? There would be guards otherwise. Serin wouldn’t likely be let stay in the manor either. The tunnel would be either collapsed or well guarded.

Yet, there was nothing.

In fact, Kaden finally found himself at the end and there was a closed doorway, that seemed to be hidden from the city halls side. From the tunnel side, there was a mechanism to open it with. Kaden guessed somewhere on the other side there was also similar mechanism. He could hear speaking in beyond the door and was able to confirm his suspicion of the location.

“Hehe”, Kaden laughed a bit to himself. “I can work with this.”

Some ideas already popped into his mind. Simple ones were the best ones. He was good with fire so he might as well torch the city.

Devouring Flame should do the trick.

It would take some effort to scatter and fill a few formations around the city with it, but once triggered. It should spread wildly. If he put the formations close enough to the city hall and supply stores and, not to forget, the temple. Even if there was someone at Condensation stage, the targets at least would be damaged before they could react. Kaden had not noticed too many formations in the city that would put out fires. He estimated them to be too weak for Devouring Flame anyway.

City hall was already easy. He could place the formations and inside the tunnel. Fire would spread up. It was even possible that the escape routes would collapse or be in fire immedieately. Everyone and everything not strong enough would likely burn and die.

The supply stores he would have to deal otherwise. Highest guard was at city hall and due to Serin’s failure, that problem was solved.

Kaden left the tunnels. He would get a good look on the supply stores before making his move. To do that he returned to his observation room. As far as he could see the patrols, the guard was only slightly less than the city hall.

“I may have to get my hands dirty with this one”, Kaden thought to himself. “I have to arrange everything ready and finish up with the supply stores. I’ll set up everything and keep eye on the supply stores, if a chance comes up. If not, I’ll just kill a few guards, set the formation and escape.”

If it proved to be insurmountable task to get through the guards, Kaden was just going to place the formation nearby and hope the fire spreads before it is stopped. Besides, he should be reaching the acceptable level of damage with the command headquarters anyway. If he couldn’t get the supplies, its fine. There should be no complaints once back in Saint Empire.

“Better get started”, Kaden muttered to himself as he stopped looking. “I’ll start here at the manor and the tunnel. Next day I should be able to get the temple set and I’ll wait until next night with the supply stores.”

Kaden really hoped the city would burn good. He sometimes had dreams about burning down cities. It was good to get some real practice on that one. Just how often you get the good chance?

“Shame I’ll have to run and not stay watch it”, Kaden lamented.