Patriarchs of the Six Emblems

Igola hadn't truly expected them to kill the Sanctuary Sorcerers. He had only hoped to cause casualties among the Red Hats—ideally leaving everyone severely wounded except for the Sanctuary Sorcerers, thereby forcing the two Sanctuary Sorcerers to stay behind and tend to their squad members. Under Red Hat regulations, caring for teammates took precedence over pursuing criminals, which would have allowed them to make a clean escape. Yet now, far from inflicting casualties, the Red Hats were completely unscathed. Pulling a hand mirror from his satchel, Igola used its reflection to see the transparent barrier that had shielded all the Red Hats in an instant. He murmured, "What was that?" Yaxiu summoned the Book of Gospel: *What was that?* The Book of Gospel: *(Cost: 5 Gospel points) Sanctuary.* Before Yaxiu could follow up with more questions, the Book of Gospel—having established a strategic partnership with the Funeral Agency—helpfully volunteered additional details: *Sanctuary: A universal ability of three-winged sorcerers, which over time came to serve as an alternate title for three-winged sorcerers. A Sanctuary is not an ability granted immediately upon ascending to Three Wings; rather, because a three-winged sorcerer must master Sanctuary to advance while exploring the Distant Sky Realm, every three-winged sorcerer is inevitably a Sanctuary Sorcerer.* *A Sanctuary requires no sorcery spirits as a casting foundation (though sorcery spirits can be used for assistance). A sorcerer needs only to disperse their mixed sorcery power—Silver, Golden, and Seven-Colored—outward from their body to generate their unique Sanctuary.* *A Sanctuary is generally a spherical, transparent force field centered on the sorcerer's body, with a freely adjustable radius. The dispersal and reassembly of void wings is the most common method of summoning a Sanctuary.* *Every second a Sanctuary remains active consumes mixed sorcery power. Furthermore, depending on the sorcery faction, each sorcerer's unique Sanctuary differs. However, all Sanctuaries possess two fundamental effects:* *1. Sanctuaries manifest instantaneously, with their size controlled at will.* *2. A Sanctuary can serve as a defensive barrier, using sorcery power directly to repel all incoming attacks. Depending on the Sanctuary's specific attributes, the sorcery power consumption varies wildly, but virtually no attack cannot be blocked.* *Based on these two effects, exhausting all of a Sanctuary Sorcerer's sorcery power can generally be considered a necessary, but not sufficient, condition for killing them.* Yaxiu showed Igola the two fundamental effects of a Sanctuary. The latter blinked. "Crucial intel was missing. It turns out my plan never had a chance of succeeding from the very start." "You didn't know about Sanctuaries?" Yaxiu asked in utter surprise. It was one thing for an illiterate outsider like him not to know, but how could Igola be in the dark? "The Sanctuary I heard about in the past was a miracle ritual established in a fixed location, within which a three-winged sorcerer was virtually invincible..." "So you had it completely wrong." "Even swindlers get tricked." Igola threw up his hands. "Tonight happened too quickly. I didn't have time to consult the Book of Gospel to verify my intel. In the end, I never actually planned on clashing head-on with three-winged sorcerers. That was never on my bucket list of 'A Hundred Things to Do in This Life.'" "My apologies." The Swindler glanced at the cult leader. "Looks like we're getting arrested again." "It's fine," Yaxiu said. "Worst comes to worst, we'll just pull off another Shattered Lake." As they chatted, Cleios landed lightly atop the gaming pod behind them, her soft footsteps cutting short their pointless banter. With her eyes tightly shut, her twin guns of justice and benevolence remained fixed on the red-named targets that would bring them glory. Crimson elven lips uttered a cold declaration: "Move, and you die." As if to lend weight to her warning, she pulled the triggers halfway, the intricate metal mechanisms giving off a mechanical click that struck dread into any thinking being. "Take note: under Red Hat regulations, so long as she gives an explicit warning, gunning down suspects on the spot won't lower her Red Hat ranking." Igola raised both hands in surrender, not forgetting to educate Yaxiu on standard Red Hat knowledge. "Sounds like her words aren't meant to warn us, but to give an explanation to the Gospel," Yaxiu remarked, meekly raising his hands as well. "Like a student in class announcing they need to pee—it's not for the benefit of their bladder." On the other side, Banjie lowered his Twin Frostcurse Guns. Still, one couldn't fault him; after all, anyone staring down the barrel of a Sanctuary Sorcerer's heavy sniper rifle aimed square at their head would feel the strength drain from their hands. Harvey had managed to avoid capture for now, but with that impossible-to-hide coffin strapped to his back, he was barely faster than a snail. It was only a matter of time before he was caught. With three of them captured, no reinforcements outside, and no backup plan within, Yaxiu felt they had no choice but to dutifully make an indelible contribution to the public security of the Gospel Country. *Ding.* Right at that moment, the elevator light came on. The chime speaker offered a friendly greeting on behalf of the arriving visitor. Every Red Hat turned toward the elevator, and their gun barrels shifted in unison with their gaze. Yet the moment the elevator doors parted, they all diverted their muzzles—because inside stood one of their colleagues. An elven Red Hat. Yet the second Banjie saw her, he breathed an immense sigh of relief. The sixty-something butler-boy took on the relieved look of a bullied kid who had just spotted his parent. "Keep your guns off him." The sentence crossed half the gaming floor in an instant. Though Cleios was already on guard, multiple glows of miracles manifesting across her body—defensive miracles were far more cost-effective than a Sanctuary unless one was truly caught unprepared—she was still sent flying by a kick! *Boom!* Trailing scattered fragments of miracles, Cleios retreated into the Red Hat formation. She immediately summoned her Book of Gospel to look up the opponent's profile, frowning as she said, "Nona Sennheiser?" Yaxiu and Igola looked up to see a tall elven Red Hat standing before them. She bore a resemblance to Qinna, though with less mature allure and more pure innocence. Her short hair looked crisp and dashing, one hand planted on her hip. To the two rescued captives, she looked as magnificent as a celestial being descending to the mortal realm. "Miss Nona?" Igola let out a breath. "According to Annan's contract with your sister—" *Smack!* "Nona" punched Igola hard in the gut. As the Swindler doubled over like a shrimp, she hammered an elbow into his back, slamming him flat onto the floor with a heavy thud. "Next time you take one of my clansmen hostage, remember these three broken ribs." Turning to Yaxiu, she asked, "Are you going to call me Nona, too?" Noticing the familiar cold haughtiness in her eyes, Yaxiu suddenly recalled their encounter in the elevator a few days earlier. "You're Qinna?" "Patriarch Qinna, is it?" Wright called out from across the room. "According to our data, Red Hat Vice Captain Nona is only a Two-Winged Sorcerer. Regardless of how solid her foundation might be, she could never possess the power to repel Captain Cleios. In all of Sennheiser, only Patriarch Qinna possesses Sanctuary-level combat strength. "By all rights, with the white mist dissipating so abruptly, ordinary Fanmulans should have instantly lost all motor capacity. Furthermore, at this hour, you ought to still be in the dreamscape, Patriarch Qinna—unable to return to reality right away after the mist cleared. But the Fanmula Six Emblems have presided here for countless years; as a patriarch, you surely possess hidden tricks unknown to outsiders." "Do all you outsiders love beating around the bush? Are you sure you want to flaunt your pitiful rhetoric before an elf several times your age?" Qinna said coldly. "The patriarch of a crest family commands the resources and trust of an entire clan. Naturally, she must remain on standby at all times and never allow herself to be trapped in a hopeless situation." Yaxiu couldn't help nodding inwardly. Take a clan like Sennheiser: because the clansmen's worldly desires were so low, Qinna was practically an absolute dictator. But the cost was that when an emergency struck, the clansmen possessed virtually zero initiative and depended entirely on their patriarch to steady the helm. If one had to make an analogy, the Sennheiser clan was like big sister Qinna shepherding a huge mob of kindergarteners. If the patriarch were to vanish abruptly, Yaxiu doubted whether Sennheiser would even have the capacity to elect another one. "Generations ago, our ancestors considered various scenarios in which a patriarch might be slain. Emergencies like the dissipation of the white mist or the lockdown of the dreamscape were well within contemplation. To guarantee the clan's continuity—the ultimate priority—every patriarch of the Six Emblem families has 'spare bodies,'" Qinna said. "A spare body carries a split soul from the host, and there is more than one spare body. In an emergency, the spare bodies activate one by one in order of priority; there will always be one capable of temporarily leading the family." "Soul splitting?!" Cleios exclaimed in shock. "Shouldn't that harm your prospects as a sorcerer? And that's no ordinary miracle... Wait, isn't this basically reincarnation, body snatching? Those spare bodies—" Cleios suddenly choked on her words. "It isn't as sinister as you imagine. Normally, the spare body is at most influenced emotionally by my split soul. Even when a split soul is activated, the body is returned once it's over. As for my future prospects, compared to securing the continuation of the family, they aren't worth mentioning," Qinna said calmly. "Splitting a soul is actually quite simple. The family reincarnation dreamscape isn't just for entertainment." "Let's end the small talk here," Wright said. "Patriarch Qinna, please hand over those two criminals. One is an imperial fugitive under Bounty Warrant 69-165, and the other just attempted to endanger public safety. As for your sneak attack on Captain Cleios, I trust the Gospel will pass a fair judgment—" "You are mistaken." "Mistaken about what?" "Mistaken about your position," Qinna said coldly. "The one entitled to say 'please' right now is me. "Please leave Fanmula immediately. Any search or arrest operations should be officially communicated to the Fanmula Red Hats through formal channels, and we will do our best to cooperate with reasonable actions. As for your raid on private Sennheiser territory without notifying the Sennheiser patriarch, I trust the Gospel will pass a fair judgment. And I won't bother holding you accountable for this white mist—humble clans like yours could never afford the wealth required to pray for such a miracle anyway." Even Cleios was taken aback. "Miss Qinna, though your realm is Three Wings, Nona... is only at the Two Wings level, isn't she?" "Even if you can draw Sanctuary-level combat strength through your sister's body, Qinna, we have two Sanctuary Sorcerers and six elite Red Hats." Wright raised his bolt-action heavy sniper rifle, issuing an undisguised threat. "Eight against one—a very simple math problem, wouldn't you say? Are you truly going to harbor an imperial fugitive?" "Let me reiterate. First, I am merely requiring you to apply for a cross-city search through official channels. Second..." "The enemy you face is not a single Two-Winged Sorcerer." An unfamiliar male voice came from outside the window. "It is six emblem patriarchs representing the eight million citizens of Fanmula." The Red Hats turned to see five uninvited guests vaulting through the shattered windows into the seventy-second floor. Tonight, doorways had fallen out of favor, and windows had become everyone's preferred entrance. "The white mist has dispersed." "My clansmen have all collapsed; I had no choice but to activate a spare body." "Outsiders have openly invaded our home." "And raised hell right in Sennheiser." "They even dare bypass us to arrest a crest clansman." "Since the founding of Fanmula, we have never suffered such humiliation," Qinna said coldly. "8,764,502 against eight. A very simple math problem, wouldn't you say?"