Myths Reawakened

Regina pinched her sister’s identical face with some force. “Boss isn’t recruiting new blood. I can’t help you. Go back home and inherit the family business. Continue to be a noble young lady.”

“Miss Nilsson, are you interested in becoming my assistant?” Ottilia asked.

“You, shut up.”

“I’m not gonna!”

Amid the ruckus in the living room, Wayne took the map and migrated to the study. Nilsson sought him out in pursuit of power. While he couldn’t help her personally, he didn’t mind introducing her to another job.

Soon, the leadership of the Church of Nature would undergo a thorough shake-up. Senna might need a secretary.

Forget being Ottilia’s assistant. The combination of a bookish girl and a succubus secretary was attractive enough. She didn’t need to recruit a whole gang for her seduction plan.

That night, Wayne, Ottilia, and Regina continued to collect information separately. To avoid another accident, the two secretaries would only be in charge of reconnaissance, and Wayne personally inspected each site.

***

Five days flew by.

In the dark domain, Senna stared at Wayne, who was sitting cross-legged, with blazing eyes. She could sense the incredible thoughts hidden in his body. While her heart shuddered for it, she felt an overwhelming desire.

At the same time, Wayne’s vengeful spirits had changed.

Those faraway in Londan were another story, but Ottilia and Regina seemed to have been reborn. They felt an infinite power generating in their bodies. They experienced a substantial, fundamental increase in power.

As vengeful spirits, they didn’t have ranks. They were magical creatures that Wayne had created with the Book of Greed, so they were only as strong as Wayne was. The moment they experienced rebirth, they realized what had happened to Wayne.

He had ranked up! He was now a legendary mage!

Their changes were so obvious that their leaked energy made Nilsson gape in shock. Her younger sister had become so much stronger.

“Regina, what... what happened to you?”

“My boss bestowed me with new power. I’ve become stronger once more.” Regina clenched her fists with joy glinting in her eyes. She hadn’t noticed the complicated feelings in Nilsson’s gaze.

Ottilia did. She leaned over and whispered to Nilsson, “Isn’t it difficult to accept becoming weaker than your younger sister? Why don’t you work for me as my assistant? I’ll make some arrangements so that you can become as strong as Regina.”

“Go away,” Regina growled. “Stop saying weird things to my sister. You’re luring her to fall, you demon.”

“As if you aren’t...”

“Um, that’s not the point. The point is you’re up to no good, trying to push my sister into a burning pit.”

“Is that how you judge your boss? You said he was a good guy.”

“...”

Regina couldn’t win the argument. She tore at her hair in frustration. When she turned around and saw the thoughtful, determined look on her sister’s face, she jumped in shock.

“Nilsson, wake up. We must rely on ourselves!”

“But you’re relying on your boss, aren’t you?”

“...”

Yeah.

***

Over the last five days of scavenging, Wayne had collected a great amount of research data, which triggered his rank up to Legendary. Baker, Weaving, and McCarey were added to the list of investors who had helped his growth.

Wayne’s Gold Triangle became almost concrete at Legendary rank. Sensing the stable balance, he found it hard to imagine the power that would be necessary to shatter the triangle and establish a holistic balance at the brink of demigodhood.

Wayne had utilized outside forces to break his balance when reaching the Hexagram stage and the Golden Triangle stage, but not this time. For one, it wasn’t necessary. Legendary mages were basically an enhanced, higher-quality version of Gold-ranked mages. For another, he couldn’t find an external force that was powerful enough. His balance was so stable and unbreakable that even chosen knights wouldn’t be able to do anything.

If becoming a legendary mage was this difficult, how was he going to become a demigod? Would he need to suck up to the Goddess of Darkness?

ε=(′д`*)))

Life was hard.

Before Wayne could open his eyes, a beauty with a nice smell tucked herself into his arms.

Senna stared at Wayne with unmistakable desire. “You’ve become stronger...”

“How did you know I’ve become a legendary mage?” Wayne asked in surprise.

His attempt at boasting didn’t garner a direct response. Senna simply congratulated him and asked for a deeper interaction with yearning. Only Auston would make the sort of constipated face he was hoping to see.

He should say it to Auston once he was back in Londan.

“Don’t rush to business just yet. Answer a few questions for me first.” Wayne stopped the dripping beauty from moving and asked her what had changed at the church’s headquarters over the past few days.

Answering the questions wasted too much time, so Senna just opened up her thoughts for Wayne to read her memories. He took a look and only saw the animalistic urges in her head. He rolled his eyes in exasperation. He knew that if he didn’t finish the business, he wouldn’t get any answers today.

Afterwards, he looked through the memories of the boneless beauty in his arms. Weaving, whom he had high hopes for, had not only refrained from making a ruckus at the church’s headquarters and confronting the Pope and his two colleagues, but had gone missing for days.

“These cunning foxes. It’s too difficult to set them up.” Wayne shook his head, patting Senna on the waist. “I’ve given you enough evidence to uproot the three Oracle High Reverends. Do with them what you will, and don’t worry about escalating the matter. I’ll... Right, you’re someone who escalates and never de-escalates. Pretend I didn’t say anything.”

The three Oracle High Reverends had such spotty track records that he didn’t need to look that deeply to find all the evidence. Only Pope Ludwig was stumping him. He hadn’t found anything decisive.

Though Wayne had found evidence on Ludwig’s partnership with the Prussian leadership, Ludwig could justify it as his way of developing the church. Not only wouldn’t it be considered proof of his sins, but it might just be taken as his achievements.

Put aside whether the endeavors are inhuman. Hasn’t the church benefited?

The old man was too cautious. Aside from the moral flaws, he had done nothing wrong. Wayne would even say that he was an excellent pope.

“I’ll take care of the Pope,” Senna said weakly.

“How? Do you have a plan?”

“High Prophet and I are allies, and I’ve won the Holy Maiden’s allegiance. The former would be in charge of the prophecies of the subordinate gods, while the latter could share the goddess’s oracles. Any reasons out of their mouths could become a viable excuse.” Senna planned to fabricate oracles.

Wayne found the plan bold, but quite viable. With both the High Prophet and the Holy Maiden speaking up, even false oracles would become real ones. With the Nature Knight pulling the strings, they could frame the Pope however they wanted.

Wayne perked up, taking the initiative in proposing an idea: “According to my investigation, the Prussian leadership has developed many interesting things, including demon vessels. Get Tubert to prophesy the existence of a demon’s agent at the headquarters and have Desiree relay an oracle that said agent has been in control of the church for over a hundred years. Leave some room for interpretation and just make sure that the leads point to the Pope...”

“You’re too cautious. Be a little bolder.” Senna chuckled. “It’ll be far from the first time Tubert twists the subordinate god’s prophecies for his own agenda. No one other than him knows whether a prophecy came from Mirelle the Lark of Wisdom or his own head. As for the oracles of the Holy Maiden... While the Pope was in control of the Holy Maidens, he had falsified his fair share of oracles.”

“A bunch of snakes. How did the church fall so low?!” Wayne seethed, feeling his conscience cry out. He had thought that his idea was outrageous, but it turned out that it was only one of the tricks that the other side had exhausted. Compared to the leadership of the Church of Nature, the opportunists in Windsor were quite loyal and moral.

“So either stay on the Pope’s good side, or turn against him completely without giving him a chance to resist.” Senna’s eyes glinted coldly.

Wayne gulped. Her malice made her even more attractive.

His reaction pleased her. Reeling in her fierceness like sheathing a sword, she narrowed her eyes and said, “As you said, Prussia has a close partnership with the Church of Nature. The Pope has been purposefully framing Weaving and the others to make them shoulder the blame. But what about the future? If the church just breaks our ties with Prussia, we’ll lose an important district. We may not even get to keep our following in Ostarrichi.”

The goddess didn’t care about the church, but She cared very much about faith. Cutting ties with Prussia would surely lead to retaliation, which would cause a great loss of followers and other dire consequences.

“Prussia won’t be around for long. She’s too ambitious, and she’ll become a public enemy...”

“But the other churches will stay on the sidelines when they see the Church of Nature charging in the front,” Senna said.

“I’ll take care of the Church of Darkness,” Wayne said with certainty. “I can recruit the Church of Heavenly Father, too. The three churches will be able to block the pressure from the Prussian government so that she won’t antagonize them until she conquers the world.”

“And after she conquers the world?”

“Prussia could only claim world domination after they conquer the harsh winter!” Wayne turned north. Prussia could never truly achieve that dream.

“You have that much confidence in those beggars?” Senna asked in surprise.

“The red flag will never lower. They have faith...” Wayne mumbled. When Senna remained unconvinced, he said, “Ana is the Holy Maiden of Darkness, and the church’s headquarters are in the Rus Federation. They’ll win.”

“I claimed you before her!” Senna bit out with frustration, cursing the hateful woman out. Anastasia must have resorted to drugging Wayne to make him fall this hard for her. For a virgin Holy Maiden who appeared sacred to the public, she sure had a lot of tricks in private.

The more she thought about it, the angrier Senna became. She used more force on Wayne to get her point across.

It didn’t work very well. Both being Wayne’s vassals, Senna and Anastasia might look dominant with their mature appearances, but they surrendered immediately when they got close to him. They could never make good on their threats.

“Prussia does deserve careful treatment. I’ll contact the Church of Heavenly Father personally...”

Wayne frowned deeply. He had lost contact with the two generals after they returned to Berlo. Either the city was too far away, and the Department of Arcane Technology Development had a barrier of some sort that blocked his senses, or they had died, killed immediately after their corruption was exposed.

Wayne hoped that it was the first scenario. If it was the second... It shouldn’t be easy to kill his vassal, let alone instantly.

He was relieved that he had framed Weaving as the mastermind so that Prussia would go after the Oracle High Reverend instead of him, even if they found out about the corruption.

“When are you going after the Pope?” Senna asked with narrowed eyes.

“The sooner the better. We move as soon as you’ve finalized the plan with the High Prophet and the Holy Maiden!”

Wayne’s eyes lit up. He wouldn’t be able to have a good night’s sleep until Ludwig was dealt with. It was best to move as quickly as lightning.