Phetue colonial City
Litvain
Osa Solar system
Pavesa Galaxy
Colony planetary Region
Gugalanna 29th Y-1909
It had been months since Meridien Karajan had returned to the only colonial city on the planet of Litvain. She had left Effie, her attendant behind with the human natives of Litvain, intending to find out what happened to Knight Isarus. Right now, she was in an alleyway, between two tall buildings, filled with the garbage containers of both buildings. The bright sunny sky of Litvain was gone, replaced by the less bright midnight sky. The stars that normally could be seen in the borderland were gone, the sky polluted by the lights and smoke of the advanced city of Phetue. Surrounded by bodies that were moaning, suffering from precision-like marks on their bodies that bled out, Meri was interrogating the last of the assassins that had come after her. As soon as she returned to the city, she made sure to let her presence be known, waiting for a chance for someone to come after her for the bounty that was on her. Meri was still pissed off at the fact that she was worth a measly sum, so she had put her frustration on those who had come after her. And now she was torturing the last assassin that had tried to kill her. She pressed on the wound she had inflicted on his stomach, the assassin grunting in pain as he tried to fight off the crazy woman. Even though the gash appeared small, the assassin's pain receptor was being influenced by Meri's bloodline ability: Scale. Meri could alter the size, weight, height, density, and mass of anything within a certain miles around her. With one of her unique techniques, she could reduce the size of the damage she inflicted, while maintaining the pain her enemy felt by augmenting the nerve cells around the wound. This way those she did not want to kill could be taken down. This was Meri's mercy to her enemies as she rarely ever tried to go for the kill. Also, it was thanks to her ability that the assassin could scream from the pain without attracting any outsiders to what was going on in the alleyway.
"....That's it....I swear... that's all the information...I have..." The black-haired man whimpered as he finished giving Meri the information she wanted. which wasn't much as it was the same intel Effie had gotten from their first assassin. Meri sighed as she let go of the assassin, disappointed that there was nothing new. If she wanted to find out what happened to Knight Isarus, then she had to get rid of the bounty that was on her first. She couldn't afford to be confronted all the time as she worked to investigate his disappearance.
"Do you want me to get rid of the pain," Meri asked. The man, nodded his head, looking at the other bodies of his fellow team members. They had slowly bled to death as this crazy woman had tortured him, the injuries on their body not being lethal enough to kill them, and yet they had still bleed out like the wound was deadly. Meri saw his line of sight and looked at the bodies. Yes, she was merciful, but her mercy was limited. For her plan to work, she did not need all of them, but just one assassin, which was why she had made sure not to let his wound bleed out as much as the others. At least Meri hadn't let them suffer the same pain she had inflicted upon him. "Then you will have to help me out. An Equivalent exchange. In exchange for your life, you will help me with my goal. Is that good enough for you," Meri released her killing intent, infusing it with her Spiritual aura to intimidate the assassin, who quickly nodded, wanting more than anything to get away from this woman.
"Good," Meri muttered.
-
"So this is the body," The broker said. He was smoking a vape pen and checking his cybernetic arm that was fitted with a Zodiak monitor. The broker was checking the info on the target and how much he was supposed to charge for the kill. He looked at the body that was naked on the bench, the pink hair that was a common characteristic of those belonging to the House of Libra, which the target belonged to.
'It was such a shame,' the broker thought to himself. Such a beauty to be gone from the world. 'Well, it's not my concern.' He glanced at the hitman who had managed to finish the job. The face was covered by a hood of his cloak, though the broker could see the brown-colored face. He quickly took his eyes off him, not wanting to involve himself deeper with people of that irk. He was just a middleman, helping his client with his request. He sent the money through the zodnet, accepting the completion of the request.
"I just sent the money to you," the broker said. He covered the body and pushed it back inside the mortuary freezer.
"Is that it," the hitman said.
"That should be it for now," The Broker puffed out smokes in the shape of a circle. "If the client has any problem with how the job was done, I'll make sure to pass it along to you."
"Very well," The hitman said. After checking that he indeed had the money, the hitman left the morgue building, going to a nearby bar to check his winning. The bar he went to was a common one for those of the lower district. In the bar was the worst kind of people one could find in the known universe. Thieves, murderers, and all kinds of criminals belonged to the bottom of society. None of them blinked at the hitman who went to a corner of the bar to take a seat. They all minded their business, attending to their concern. As the hitman settled down, he took out his Zodiak to check the amount that was in his account. As he looked at the sum of the money, a part of his eyes twitched as the target of the assassination was worth more than the one that was put out.
'Dammit! Settle down Meri, it's part of the enemy's plan' Meridien thought. She made sure that her expression kept the cold facade as she smoothed out the skin of the skin mask that she wore in disguise. She was also kind of mad for giving up her Dissembler, the Magitech device she had gotten from her time as a hunting dog. Meri's plan was quite simple. After she was done torturing the last of the hitmen that had come after her, she took his identity after dumping him somewhere no one but her could find him. Then she used her Dissembler to falsify the appearance of one of the corpses to look like her. The stupid broker had fallen for the device which altered his senses to think the corpse was Meri. However, to keep up the ruse, she had left the device on the corpse's body. That was the downside of the magitech, it had a limited range of effects. So as long as the device was with the body, anyone who looked upon it would see Meri instead. Still, Meri was satisfied that her plan worked out. Now it was time to focus on the last known location of Knight Isa. Using her Visual ability of Judgement, Meri had tracked the movement of Knight Isa from the temple of Sethios, the Jackal god to the Inner district of the city. From what she gathered, it seemed Knight Isa visited Starlight temple and every trace of him stopped there.
"I have no choice but to go there," Meri muttered to herself. She had been hoping to not get involved with the Temple and its people because she had no desire to get pulled into whatever agenda that normally took place in such a religious institute. To be honest, Meri despised those gold-cloaked priests and their self-righteous rhetoric. But if she wanted to get to the truth of what happened to Knight Isa, she had no choice but to go there. She sighed as she ordered some drinks and food for herself.
****
In the Inner district of Phetue colony city, there was a large grandiose building that was made from the most precious material, the aesthetic of the building showed how glorious and magnificent their view towards their religion was. The building was star-shaped, in a Romanesque style of architecture that showed off its massive strength and solidity. Around the building was a twenty-acre of land with tall, large oaks of trees. The land was filled with so much greenery that the quality of nature was astounding. Compare that to the land across the wall which was filled with so much sand. Walking and going out of the building where the parishioners of the temple, citizens of various classes. There were no guards around the building but Meri could sense the presence of a protective barrier around the land, keeping out those with malicious intent from setting foot into the land. It was a fifth-tier spell that worked against those who were not of the Awakened status. As a Supreme, even with a murderous intent, the spell would not work on her. Meri walked through the doorway with a semicircular archway, the inside of the building was colored gold and white, with various banners with a tiara decorated with two pairs of bull horns. There were various levels of floors inside the buildings, but Meri focused on staying on the lower floor. The space where Meri had chosen to stay had a huge space, filled with statues of various gods. The Annunaki religion was a polytheistic type of religion with various gods that had different pantheons. Each of these pantheons once belonged separately from the first iteration of the Annunaki religion, belonging to planets that allied together to form the Divine Federation while some were religions that belonged to colony planets that were conquered by the Divine Federation and were assimilated into it. This is why the Divine Emperor is known as a Conquering deity in various civilizations across the cosmos. In the name of the so-called Divine peace, the Annunaki religion allowed the Divine Federation to do whatever inexcusable action they could think of. Meri knew this from experience.
"Excuse me, Can I help you," A woman in a white nun cloak stopped and stared at Meri, whose fake appearance was covered by her hood. Meri removed the cloak and gave a smile to the nun.
"I'm here to see the Bishop of this church," Meri said as she pulled the mask off her face. The only reason she had kept it on after she had gotten the money from the broker was to avoid anyone in the lower district that she was still alive. She waited till she was here in the church where she needed her identity to meet with the bishop. As she pulled away the mask, Meri pulled out her identification as a Paladin of Starlight, something which the nun immediately recognize as she bowed her head.
"It is an honor to meet you, Holy warrior. How may I serve you," The Nun said.
"Take me to the Bishop," Meri said. "I've come to this planet as an Adjudicator, so I need to meet with him or her," The nun was not aware of the fact that an Adjudicator had been appointed to judge the progress of their evangelism, but then again she was just a mere nun not someone who was at the top of the hierarchy, so maybe she had missed it. So the Nun took Meri through the various floors to the floor where the Bishop's office was. All the Nun did was show Meri the way, help her inform the secretary of the Bishop's office who Meri was and her purpose and then the Nun left. Meri was left standing, with a smile at the orange hair woman, dressed in a white office work suit. Though she appeared to be in her fifties, Meri could tell that this woman was far older than she looked.
"I was not aware that the Judicial branch of the Federation would be sending an Adjudicator," The woman said. She was aware of Meri's family's identity, yet she didn't show the same nervousness as the Magistrate when he met with Meri.
"It was decided that with how things are in Lamentias, it would make sense to check up on the status of the other colony," Meri said with a blatant lie. The Secretary raised an eyebrow but said nothing as she informed the Bishop of Meri's presence. After speaking with the Bishop for at least ten minutes, the Secretary turned her attention back to Meri.
"His Lordship, Bishop Cervian will see you now," She said. Meri nodded and went right through the door, grateful she didn't have to wait long. Inside the Bishop's office was a large space, bigger than the Magistrate with more white and gold colored decorations and furniture. There were portraits of various Bishops, but in the center was a portrait of a being dressed in golden armor with a symbol of a bull on the armor. The being was depicted having dominion over the sky which also acted as a symbol for the cosmos, with cosmic lighting flashing around him, below him were the mortal folks who served and worshiped him. The Divine Emperor. Meri was familiar with such portraits as she had grown up seeing them in her own house. She turned away from the portraits to look at the man seated in front of a large desk. The man wore the typical garment of Bishops, a choir dress fitted with a purple cassock with a star-shaped symbol worn around his neck. Holding a crosier in his right hand, Meri could feel the holiness that radiated around the Bishop. Unlike her who practiced Mystic cultivation, the Priest was an Arcane Cultivation who focused on practicing a form of magic known as Theurgy. His magic was the source of the holiness she felt and it was pretty strong. She did not doubt that he was the one who cast the protective barrier around the church's land.
"Lady Karajan, If the Judicial office had authorized a review, I would have known about it," Bishop Cervian said as he examined the noble lady of the Family of the House of Libra. Meri just merely smiled as she came up with more lies.
"Due to the delicate nature of Lamentias, I was sent by the Chief Judge," Meri said. Bishop Cervian raised an eyebrow when Meri bought up her Grandfather's position. In the Divine Federation, the government was divided into the Legislature, Judicial, and Executive branches, and the Judicial branch was divided into three levels, the Supreme Court, Appeal Court, and Districts court. Meri's Grandfather was the Leader of the Judicial branch known as Chief Justice, a position he had gotten from birth as the Karajan family was in charge of the Judicial branch. The position was not hereditary, but her family had always held on to that power for some reason. Something that had always made Meri feel a certain way. It spoke of the relation between the corruption of the Federation and her family.
"Hmm, I suppose Chief Justice Harran has the right to do that," Bishop Cervian muttered. Meri hid her smirk from the fact that she was abusing her family's power. "So how can I help with your Inspection," Meri was glad he was ready to go straight to business.
"I want to know what the current state of the relationship between the church and the native," Meri said. "You should already have begun with the conversion program, right," When the Divine Federation acquire a new planet, there were protocols that Starlight enacted in which they would convert the natives of invaded worlds to the religion of Annunaki. Once this process was done through violence, the spilling of blood on a genocidal level, in the name of Divine peace. But after the Uprising, and the rise of the progressive faction in the Divine Federation's politics, the process had changed. Now Starlight did not force a planet to convert, instead they gave them a choice in either keeping to their old faith by assimilating it into Annunaki or they would be hunted down as Heretics. From what Meri understood about the natives she had met outside the city, they refused to let their faith be annexed into the Annunaki religion.
"The church have been seventy percent successful in bringing the flocks of Litvainians into the Divine fold," Bishop Cervian said. "The ones who accepted the status quo have been accepted into the city, given new opportunities, and have been taught of the Divine mercy of his Holiness,"
"And the remaining percent," Meri said.
"They have gone underground, hiding like the filth that they are," Bishop Cervian said. His eyes had gone dark upon thinking about the Heretics that were still here. If it was up to the Bishop, he would prefer to call upon a Mass cleansing, to wipe out all the natives who were in hiding, turning this planet into a paradise for his flocks, but the stupid Supreme Pontiff had caved to the demands of the Grand Admiral of the Military branch of Starlight. That stupid woman, with her weak heart was one of the reasons why the progressive faction had risen to power, and that control over Starlight had fallen from the Religious sect to the Military sect. She was also the reason why Starlight had halted their expansion into the Neutral Free Zone, something that had always been the goal of the Divine Federation. As the Bishop was feeling all this negative emotions, Meri was using her Judgement eyes upon the Bishop, gaining access to his innermost desires. She couldn't help but come to a conclusion based on the appraisal she had conducted. A part of Meri couldn't help but feel sick upon reaching her conclusion. She wanted to behead this man right this instance but she easily controlled her bloodlust. This man possessed a lot of positive karma that benefitted him greatly. The work he had done had greatly benefitted the universe, so even if she were to kill him, there was a chance that his life after death would be wonderful, something she did not wish to give to him. No...she would wait and tip the scale of justice from his side to hers before she would deliver the killing blow. Same with the Magistrate of this colony city.
"The natives are more familiar with the terrain than we are. And even with the help of the new native converts, there's still so much to do before we can establish new cities," Bishop Cervian proclaimed. "But luckily for us, the Magistrate forces are still able to harvest the spices from the Spice field we conquered, so production and export of the Xeta spice is still going as planned," Ah, yes, this planet is responsible for the production of Xeta-beam fuel used for interstellar travel.
"So it seems the only problem is with the Natives out in the Badlands," Meri said. She stood up and walked towards the door like she was about to leave but then she paused by the door. Meri turned around, a look of confusion on her face like she was trying to remember something. "Before I forget, it's just something I might have heard, not sure if I'm right or not, but did a Offworlder Star Knight happen to stop by here in the church?" Bishop Cervian frowned, like he had no idea what Meri was talking about.
"Unfortunately, I don't know of any star Knight that has been in this area of the galaxy," Bishop Cervian said.
"Is that so," Meri said. "Well then, it was nice talking with you Bishop," She left the office, greeting the secretary goodbye and soon enough she was out of the church building. This time around, Meri did not walk out of the church's land, instead she decided to take to the air as she took out her Zodiak device and sent a call right to Effie. On the first ring, Effie answered the call, a holographic image of her flashing out of the monitor.
"So did you do it," Effie said. Meri snorted, like she was offended that Effie even need to ask.
"Yes, I did," Meri said. There had been more to the meeting with Bishop Cervian than Meri had let on. While in the room with the bishop, while she had been Judging him and he spoke about his distaste of the natives, Meri had released a wormbot, a machine shaped like a silver metallic worm that had slithered on the floor towards the monitors on his desk. With the help of Effie's tech, they would gain access to the Zodnet and see through the memory files if Knight Isa made contact or not. If he did, there should be a record in the system.
"Did you get in," Meri asked.
"Almost there....Yes...I just got into their system without tripping any alarm," Effie said. "It should take me a while before I find what we need."
"Alright. Call me when you get it," Meri said, and then she dropped the call. She sighed as she turned around in the air to see the Automaton, Hephaestion hovering behind her.
"We need to talk, girl," the Android said.