Selicia and Grok were back at Augustinus's place, in the luxurious basement they sat on their chairs alone with the master of the house. His bodyguards absent for some reason, Grok didn't even notice as he searched for some kind of nourishment.
The ruler sat on his bed while staring at the ceiling. "Hmm, we've lost two quite useful pawns, I hope you were able to gather the info you needed?"
"Yes... I", before she had a chance to continue, Augustinus waved his hand to the side. He looked a lot more serious compared to his usual behavior, he didn't even greet them when they entered.
'Is this his real personality, or is it the other way around?'
"I know you're both Starborn or mages, whatever you want to call it. There's no point in hiding it anymore, so tell me honestly. What did you think of him?", he clasped his hand in front of his face as he lowered his tone. He wasn't joking around anymore.
Dropping such a bomb on them surprised only the presumed leader of the group.
'He knows we're mages? How did he even learn that term? Well, I mean.. if he really thought about it, it would make sense, but still, there are barbarians with strange powers as well. So why did he come to that conclusion? We most definitely hid our identities well.'
While Selicia had trouble to comprehend how Augustinus figured it out, Grok wasn't all that shocked. He revealed to a few people he knew magic, so if they connected the dots, it was quite clear.
'Perhaps I should've told her? Oh well.', he thought as he grabbed another grape to munch on. Selicia used a couple of her spells to lower her stress level, cool her down, and increase the sound in her voice.
"Okay. Lucas is a low Rank 2 mage with powers that seem to border on a mid-Rank 2 mage. His aura is simplistic, but powerful. Based purely on emotions, it's easy to withstand with a strong mind. What's strange is his physical strength, it's comparable to a Tier 2."
Augustinus nodded as if he understood everything she said. He probably understood more of her report than she did.
"From the magical perspective I have nothing to add, I'm not a mage. His physical strength is because he underwent the first trial and reached Tier 1."
'Huh? Only Tier 1? That doesn't make any sense.', Selicia wondered as Grok took over the conversation for a moment.
"Hey, can't we do those trials or whatever, they seem cool.", he said as a few drops of grape juice flew out of his mouth.
"I'm afraid that after that Starborn put a lockdown on them, only the ones in the capital have the crystals necessary to perform the trial. Getting you in there is going to be a pain, but not impossible."
"Good, make it happen."
"Don't order me around, you buffoon. I have my ways to kill a Starborn. Don't think that just because you can use magic you're invincible down here.", he said as he tried to hold his cool.
"I've lost two good pawns, that better not be the end of your report.", he didn't have any aura since he was a defective mage, but Selicia felt that his threat was genuine. She was already taking it seriously, yet the man in front of her raised the stakes.
Grok laughed it off, but Selicia was actually impressed by everything Augustinus just said. He knew a lot more than he let on.
'He knows we're underground, he knows a lot about Starborn and even has a weapon capable of killing us? No, that can't be, even if we're only Rank 2, we are strong enough to handle at least a few spells, and he can't use magic.'
Her mind racing to soothe her own worries. The longer she thought about it the more agitated Augustinus was starting to look.
"I believe that.. if we get access to those Tiers and reach Tier 2, we'll be able to handle him. But before I continue, you said he only reached Tier 1?"
"Correct, he's doing the second trial now."
"Ah, okay.. uhm.. wouldn't it be good to attack now?", she thought now that he was out of the picture anyway, it would be the perfect time to attack.
"Tch, I thought you were the smart one of the two.", Selicia felt her cheeks heat up, needing a spell to cool her back down. "Looks like you don't understand, there's nobody in that castle that is strong enough to warrant any worry. There's the Senate, but they're all old and ready to die."
Augustinus talked like he knew all of them like they were good friends of his.
"Only that Starborn is an issue, if we get rid of the chains that shackle him down, he doesn't have to care about his image or hold back. He's now serving the throne, which means he has to protect. If we get rid of that, he'll go on the offensive. What's the point in taking over a destroyed kingdom?"
Selicia scrambled her mind to come up with something else to say since he clearly wasn't satisfied yet.
Then she remembered what happened at the end. Using her comforting spells again, she steeled her heart.
"He interrogated the two nobles, I believe he'll figure out who told them to act. Besides that, if he has enough time to prepare, he is a lot harder to handle."
Augustinus stared at her eyes like a lion looking at a rabbit. It stayed that way a lot longer then what she hoped before he responded in an annoyed tone.
"What are you trying to say?"
Augustinus had fought many battles before he reached his current position and through his experience, he could categorize most of his opponents into three classes. The first ones had muscles for brains, they were hard to take down in a battle.
The best way to overpower them would be through a good strategy. The second kind were mostly Scholars, they were weak but had the mind to compensate. The best way to get rid of them is to brute force it or by playing tricks.
The final kind of opponents were the worst, they combined their strength with their intellectual genius to form a formidable enemy. The people in that category could be counted on a single hand. Some people that came to mind were the former Emperor and himself.
"When people tend to rely on their plans, we simply need to introduce chaos to that plan, and he won't know what to do next. As long as we brute force a certain action or spread misinformation, we can ruin his plan and take advantage of his confusion.", Augustinus said as he hoped that his true feelings were wrong.
"Uhm... I'm afraid that won't be enough..", but as reality often did, his hopes were shattered.
"Explain."
"When I checked his tent I wanted to find as much information as possible. I copied the papers I found.", she pulled the papers from the open air, which should've surprised anyone in the Underground. Augustinus was perhaps the only exception that solidified that rule.
Augustinus looked over all the papers and realized what she was trying to say. There were dozens of plans on how to move forward. In case barbarians showed up, in case Augustinus interfered, in case the assassins moved in...
There were so many paths drawn out in the papers that Augustinus found it sickening. The fight was a little one between two nobles and the throne, nothing noteworthy, yet the Starborn made so many calculations?
'Ridiculous, you would have to stop sleeping to draw up this many.', he clicked his tongue realizing that was most likely exactly it. He was inferior to mages in that aspect. He still needed some kind of sustenance to survive.
"Fine, if that's the way it is, so be it. For now, I'll arrange you to perform in the trials. After that, I'm going to put you in my army, and we'll go all out. If I'm right, they'll attack us first anyway. We'll fight a defensive battle. You better get rid of him there, that'll be our best shot."
"Why? If I can ask."
"Because with that battle, the fence sitters are taking a side again. The Starborn in legends are strong, but we never saw his strength yet. So by crushing an army ten times their own size, he convinced a lot of opportunists to take a side again. Before the throne gets too big again, we need to get rid of their weapons. I'll give you a single order, kill that Starborn."
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As Lucas prepared himself for the next step, he was interrupted by Carian. He seemed to be in a better state then when he left. Unexpectably, the trip Lucas and Thurin went on relieved him of a lot of his work.
While he did have to keep up appearances, without the Emperor's consent, a lot of work was left on hold. Meaning that he had some free time, although not as much as he had hoped for. Then Lucas came back with the fortunes of two nobles who hoarded like it was their life's goal.
That influx of money was the water that they needed in this dry desert, and as quickly as it came, it vanished into multiple projects and wages. At least their thirst was quenched for now.
"Lucas, do you remember the slave symbol from the so-called messenger we encountered back then?"
"Of course.", he hadn't given it any attention up until now since he didn't know what to do with it. It was a strange clue that was somewhat of a loose end.
According to his memories it was a slave sign, meaning that someone owned the man. The only strange thing about that the sign was that it wasn't one of the bigger slave groups. To Lucas, it meant that it was a private slave label of Augustinus or something of the like.
He didn't pay it any attention since it could be explained away in a few ways, but Carian was ready to turn that idea upside down.
"I had to scour the old archives for any kind of clue, but I finally found it. This symbol wasn't exactly used for slavery in our land. Rather, it was imprinted on the men that the barbarians captured during the war."
"Prisoners of war? How come they are alive, I don't think there were any hostage exchanges.", although there were some moments prisoners were freed during an ambush, Lucas had forgotten about it for a second. He couldn't know everything at all times even if he wanted to. Hence, why he always had the book of laws with him to make sure he was in the right all the time.
"No, there were some, but those weren't recorded since it would tarnish the reputation of the Empire."
Lucas felt annoyed that there were some pieces of information he would never know if they weren't recorded. "Thanks for looking this up for me.", he gave him a fake smile. It was good to know what it was, but useless in the end.
Carian gave him a half-hearted smile before smacking him with his opinion, "You don't have to be sarcastic, I know this information was useless, and you wouldn't be satisfied with that. But don't worry, I've done my research."
"Hmm?", Lucas was intrigued. He always thought that Carian and Thurin needed his help to keep everything in balance, but they were slowly growing apart from him. Thurin seemed to become more and more like the former Emperor, making him handle issues with a few words and finding solutions where there weren't any.
With the constant aid of Carian, he was certain the intel he received was correct, and no corruption would be capable of reaching him. Lucas had become less and less involved in the current affairs, only when certain people wouldn't go along with Thurin did he step in to change their minds.
"The messenger wasn't one of the prisoners we exchanged or saved. In other words, he either escaped on his own from the barbarians or..."
"Someone else has a good relationship with barbarians."
"I was thinking the same thing. I assume we both know who we're talking about, but I don't have any concrete evidence. So we won't be able to act on it."
"Don't worry, I've got an idea on how to pin all the blame on him. First I need to get through the second trial though."
"Hmm, good choice. If we're going to go up against him, it'll be quite a hassle. Well, anyway, good luck in there.", Carian left him alone to make his preparations for the next trial.
Lucas stood in the temple looking at the same set-up of the Tier 1 temples. He simply had to activate it and he would start the second trial. He had already prepared himself a lot, and while there was no such a thing as perfect preparations, he had tried to get as close as possible.
The array on the ground was different from last time and the crystal was also slightly larger. Lucas critiqued himself again when he didn't understand the slightest thing in the array. Still, that didn't stop him from making a copy in his mind.
Like last time, there was a big chance the trial would be different from the norm, meaning the challenges will follow the same path, but the difficulty would be amped up.
'There are multiple tests again, first some questions, then a fight against one of the Great Beasts. It's a lot simpler than the first test, that's for sure.'
There were a few Great Beasts, they were monsters that stood on the same level as a weak Tier 2 soldier. Hence, why a lot of people see defeating such a monster as proof that you would succeed in the trial.
'Sure, they downplayed the first trail as well, and we should've died. We only survived by luck.'
'I understand you're nervous, but do you want to pass on this chance?'
'Of course not! I just don't think we're prepared enough.'
'Have some faith, I trust you and the spells you created, trust yourself for this one.'
'Tch, fine. Let's just do this.'