City of Sin

If One Was God

Richard suddenly opened his eyes, looking at Flowsand who was still immersed in the Book of Time with a puzzled gaze, “You’re always reading the Book. Haven’t you finished it?”

Flowsand smiled in response, passing the book over to him with both hands, “Try reading it.”

Richard accepted and took a look through, but all he could see was balls of dazzling light. “What is this?” he asked in shock, “Were you always reading this stuff?”

Flowsand made a sound of surprise, clearly astonished, “You can actually see something?”

“It’s just balls of light, I have no idea what they mean,” he said with a frown.

This just surprised her even more, “Wait, use your divine grace to read it, the one you received from the ceremony to the Eternal Dragon. It should permeate your soul, try it!”

Richard frowned and followed Flowsand’s instructions, concentrating on gathering the Eternal Dragon’s grace. Surely enough, the constantly moving balls started leaving visible trails, faintly tracing out a divine text. However, the text was extremely blurred; he could only identify a few incoherent words with much difficulty, unable to understand their meaning. He wanted to continue gathering the divine grace, but a wave of fatigue suddenly hit him causing a loss in focus. All of the text disappeared instantly, and the balls of light soon followed. All he could see in the end was an empty page.

Richard was taken aback. He flipped through a few more pages, realising that every page in the Book of Time was blank.

“It’s blank?!” he exclaimed in surprise as he returned the book to her.

“One needs to use the divine power of time to see the contents. You can see whatever you want,” Flowsand explained.

He could only smile at that, “We’re about to enter battle. Why are you so hardworking?”

“I’m researching a completely new divine spell. I’m about to figure out the last link, and it might be in time for this battle,” she said as she buried her head into the book once more.

“What divine spell is it that needs so much effort? It’s only a group of bandits.”

“You’ll know soon enough. Right, tell me before you start casting spells.”

“The spell works on me?”

“Of course. It’s designed for you!”

……

The caravan continued on its bumpy journey, entering another uninhabited area. However, the desert warriors guarding it suddenly grew tense. They started to look around, their grips on their falchions growing tighter.

The ground started vibrating at that moment, the sound growing more and more pronounced. The experienced warriors immediately dispersed to form a perimeter around the carriages; they knew this was the sound of a large cavalry approaching.

The first cavalryman flew in from the foot of the mountains, and in the blink of an eye over 200 had rushed out before the caravan. The group all had simple, dark cloaks over their armour, concealing the style and crests of their equipment. Their faces were masked with raised hoods.

The faint murderous aura coming with every move was a clear indication that this was a group of veterans. The leader stood out from the crowd, looking at the wagons and desert warriors before he slowly raised his hand and clenched his fist. This was a common signal among the knights of the Sequoia Kingdom: a command to kill every enemy.

This group clearly wasn’t just here to steal goods. They were out for blood, not even checking what their target was carrying. The knights advanced in two groups, one on each side of the leader, slowly approaching the enemy. Their killing intent grew more intense the closer they got, a habit of experienced hunters. The intense aura would force the prey into a frantic flight, maximising their chances of victory.

However, the hood of one of the carriages was suddenly pushed open completely. Richard stood up from the cart, looking at the not-distant leader as he spoke with a wry smile, “If you’re robbing me, shouldn’t you ask what’s in the wagons first?”

The knight lifted his hood, revealing a face covered in hard lines. He stared at Richard with his hawk eyes, his eyes immediately narrowing as he forced a cold sentence through gritted teeth, “Since you’re here, the contents don’t matter!”

Richard laughed heartily, “Alright, don’t say stuff like you’re so-and-so and I can’t tell you later!”

The leader naturally understood the implications in those words. His face turned purple with anger, but the ridicule would not interfere with his intent to fight. He threw his raised arm down and roared, “FULL ASSAULT, KILL THEM ALL!”

Seeing the two cavalry groups speed up, Richard narrowed his eyes. Mana surged forth around him, his hand rising in preparation to launch a fireball. Although the fireballs wouldn’t hit the enemies at this distance, he could still burn the ground to reduce their speed or change the direction of attack. Forces like these, somewhere between light and heavy cavalry, lost a lot of their power when slowed down. At that time, his desert warriors could display their own horsemanship and combat skills.

It was then that Flowsand started chanting a rapid incantation completely in divine language. An indiscernible pale-gold hourglass appeared over Richard’s head, rotating faster and faster until it was almost a blur.

Richard’s entire body shook. He felt his mana surge violently, practically boiling over with its power. The fireball he was about to cast was interrupted, the small delay enough for the incoming cavalry to enter range.

A brilliant divine light filled his body, burning brightly like a flame. His mana went from boiling to flaming in the blink of an eye and… started circulating manyfold faster than before? An idea flashed across his mind and he suddenly raised both hands, his hurried incantations so fast that the words blurred together into a sharp whistle.

*Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!* Fireball after fireball continually shot out of his hands. Eight projectiles were launched into the air in an instant, and that wasn’t even the end of it!

The leader’s jaw dropped open. One moment he was in the midst of directing the cavalry into assault formation, and the next all he could see was a sky of fireballs. He frantically wanted his subordinates to stop their charge, but he knew it was already too late. All he could manage was a crazed roar of despair.

As for the knights racing forward at high speeds, their eyes filled with fear. All they could see around them were fireballs! This was the most extreme display of magic; a miracle of beautiful destruction!

*BOOM!* The first of the fireballs exploded violently, the surging waves of fire instantly covering everything in a radius of five metres. It was followed closely by the second, third, fourth… all the way to the fifteenth! All of the explosions rang out in quick succession, instantly forming an arc of fire ahead of the caravan. The constant bursts merged together into the sound of one complete, gigantic explosion!

The cavalrymen could not control the charge of their warhorses, getting thrown into the sea of fire as they howled out loud. A scant few managed to barely come to a halt, but their comrades merely rammed into them from behind and sent them tumbling in.

All of the desert warriors were stunned. Thankfully they had received exceedingly strict training, so they had not recklessly rushed out to meet the enemy. However, the fire was so close it was starting to singe their hair. They had to use all their strength to control the frightened horses, stopping them from jumping around wildly.

By the time the flames fizzled out, a third of the incoming cavalry had been turned to ash. The rest were stopped just before the line, using all their strength to control their frightened mounts. Only those in the rear were completely unharmed. Faced with the grievous deaths and injuries of their fellow soldiers, they were thoroughly enraged and charged in without waiting for the flames to completely die out.

Richard had both arms stretched forward, stuck in the same posture since he launched the last fireball. His hair was blown back by a burst of hot air, dancing in the wind before slowly falling back to his shoulders. He felt a deathly emptiness in his body; in less than two seconds nearly 90% of his mana had flooded out of him. However, what he saw left him stunned. Sadly, there was no time to relish in that godlike feeling.