Chapter 16-422: Do You Want to See the Sun? (1/2)

Longest day in the Northern Hemisphere, but this was a Sylunar-centered Ritual, not Aruan. While the Priests of the Sun God were happy to argue about getting their own Ritual going off at dawn, Highmoon was the height of Silver Magic, not Highsun or Dawn, which were the heights of Light Magic and Natural Renewal, respectively. Different things, even if the moon meant all sorts of things for good and ill in various ways and means.

This time ALL the Morningsun family came Teleporting in to join in the Ceremony. They joined literally hundreds of new Nines... and more than a few Tens of multiple Races, all eager to help and participate.

There was energy crackling all around. The air was charged with emotion and power, magic drawn by a lot of very powerful people all gathered in the same place.

A massive percentage of them belonged to The Jet and Silver, which was heartening. The First Banner behind the Temple of Stars was closing in on four thousand meters high... which would be sixteen million people sworn under it.

I didn’t expect them all to stay if Kings came about... but on the other hand, I had multiple potential Kings Sworn under me. If they became True Kings, their absolute Duty became to their Land and its people, but that didn’t mean they couldn’t still be in Allegiance.

I was somewhat surprised when The Mick and over fifty Tomb Clanners arrived to participate, frankly shocking a lot of the snootier people, especially with how enthusiastically I greeted them.

Fifty Tome-Tainted among the Tomb Clans was a massive shift in mindset. It was worth celebrating and recognizing. If I was happy they were participating, that only shamed those that thought this was a display of the elitism and power of the Churches and whatnot.

To the surprise of many, I even let Uruthi and some Neutral adherents participate... as long as they were Nines, meaning they’d done their reversions and re-Leveled by the Double Helix. If they were willing to do that and wanted to participate, I had no issues with them.

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Legion popped in next to me smoothly. With little hisses and pops, eight Penitent Warlocks popped up beside them, matching our pace.

“Busy day, Warlocks!” I noted for them, and they all murmured a bit tiredly in response.

The security teams were running their asses off. There were so many different forces looking to make some moves during or before the Ceremony, generating some free publicity.

It really did not make those people’s day to open up a door and be confronted by people with the black of Sinbound eyes, the deathly Aura of a Pact Morituri, and guns leveled at their faces, the white cloaks of the Penitent proclaiming their status.

Nine Wishes had been expended just to stop any mass killing events from going off today. There’d already been explosions in a few factories, boats, empty warehouses, and residential homes, where munitions intended to be set off during the Ceremony had been returned to their owners and gone off.

“This is the largest such showing ever,” Legion agreed grimly. “We’re up to twenty-nine incidents of note, and another dozen independent parties.” The Heavenbound were naturally at the heart of security, but given the sheer numbers of things happening, they’d asked the Penitent if they wanted to help... making very sure to note that this could very well be a move to draw the Warlocks out of Penitent Hall.

The Penitents had all agreed to pitch in, combined hunters and bait, and to their surprise, had been placed in charge of the teams assisting them. Just one more show of trust in them and what they were trying to do.

Things like this were why Shvaughn was here. It was a prime event for attracting random Warlocks and members of Dark Churches or other organizations, who she could Consume and then follow back to other targets for disposal.

Alas for them, there were now literally dozens of people in town who could Teleport, enabling them to get places VERY quickly... and they were all quick to volunteer to help out with a little excitement, too.

When The Mick and Amaretta dropped in on a bunch of Blooded hailing from one of the Clans down South ready to make a quiet massacre among the tourists coming in, there were some eager Whites and Bones with the duo who were totally capable of and very enthusiastically ready to manhandle their ‘betters’ with them, and well, things did indeed get a bit bloody there...

But it was all fine. They were VERY good at cleaning up after themselves now...

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“AHEM.”

They nearly jumped out of their skins. Given the number of people gathering at all sorts of places to see the skies open up, one more gathering of pick-up trucks and vans and people at a farmhouse wasn’t enough to attract anyone’s attention. Parties were going on all over the place.

They might have been a bit more concerned with the number of Caucasian male humans, the amounts of liquid fortification, and the number of firearms.

Magic lit up all around. It was humming off everything metallic, with a pseudo-lightning vibe that had people dropping firearms and knives in hand rather abruptly, afraid they were about to get shocked.

I was hard to miss, wreathed in black flames burning as silver as my eyes as I came down from the sky, right into the middle of their gathering.

“Given the many, many statements about me, curses, suppositions, insults, smears, and insinuations at me, I believe you all have things you wanted to say right to my face.”

About a hundred middle-aged men swallowed rather abruptly as I stood there in midair, rotating slowly to meet each and every one of their eyes, totally unafraid, and completely invulnerable.

None of them dared level a firearm at me. Enough adrenalin was giving even the drunken ones enough sense to realize that if they did so, they were likely going to die instantly.

Some of the smarter ones were looking around to see if I had brought any help. The really smart ones just swallowed again, realizing that I didn’t need any help to kill them all.

“This, this is a private party!” one of the organizers called out, his voice falling remarkably flat.

“You were calling out my name and daring me to come here, declaring all sorts of things you would do to me if I arrived, Master Hopkins.” He went absolutely white as I identified him. “I accepted your invitation. What exactly did you and your friends want to say to my face?” I encouraged him with not-a-smile.