Solar Mage

Chapter 57: Inspections

I look down and see Agon II staring in terror, not at me, but at the giant ball of flames in my hands. Noticing my gaze down at him, he immediately gets off his ass and tries to get up, but falls. After attempting it a second time, he succeeds and manages to stand up with his hands slapped together, before planting his forehead on the wooden platform, slamming down at it with great force.

"Pl-please forgive me... I was wrong. I apologize for what I said! Please don't kill me... I can be of service to you!"

What the hell? If I didn't have Heightened Senses, I wouldn't be able to hear him say that at all, through the sound of the swirling flames just above me!

Agon continues groveling on the floor whimpering and sobbing, repeating the same thing over and over, barely audible.

"Please-please-please..."

I don't say a word of response to him, as I continue to look at him with a serious face of disappointment, the anger no longer being shown on my face as I reflect in my thoughts.

Sigh, while I don't trust him in the slightest, that he will change his ways, or that he's actually sorry, my arms hurt a lot from having to keep it in the air for so long. Seriously, how can I be this tired? It was only four days!

The ball of swirling orange flames starts to get smaller, as it seeps back into my palm, until it is fully gone, the only thing left lighting the sky, being the sun.

Ahh, much better.

I look down, to the half circle of marble set just before the wooden platform, and see the man in black clothes with his sword sheathed, and the man with long blonde hair, Veran, lying unconscious on the ground, facedown, still gripping tightly to his sword, while his limbs lie outstretched across the marble.

Looks like the shadow is done with that guy as well. Thank god he took care of him, though he doesn't have a single scratch on him. They're both Royal Ranked swordsmen but that shadow is at least ten times stronger than him. If I was in prime condition– I wonder– who would win between the two of us?

From high above the ground, my desire is highly visible, as I grin intently at the shadow who, noticing my eye, slightly chuckles before looking back to the rows of Holy Knights, his left arm still resting on top of his sword.

He chuckled?

I touch my face and feel my mouth, a smile spread widely, before I quickly return it back to a straight, and serious face.

Haha... to see my smile from this distance, truly terrifying...

I look back down at the platform and then to the Holy Knights, all with their heads down as they all wait in silent anticipation.

Thankfully, no one else saw it. Now, before I actually fall unconscious, let's do what I promised, and get this over with.

I drop down the wooden platform, completely erasing the impact of my fall with Swift Wind. Once I land, Agon II and his bodyguards shake even more intensely as they hear my footsteps, over the wooden platform get louder and louder.

Once I get close, mere feet away from them, I examine the four of them.

Just four bodyguards? Ha, I guess since there were these few people on his side, he placed all his trust in Veran. Who was he anyway? Wait–

I look closer at the Holy Knight bowing at the far right side of Agon, who shakes much more than the rest.

Wait– that face, I recognize him! It's the guard that stopped me in the main entrance, from the first time I visited the temple!

I move away from Agon II, who stops shaking and lifts his head, looking at me as I walk to the man on his far left. The guard shakes even more, sweating profusely as I stand in front of him, avoiding eye contact with me like his life depended on it.

"Hey man, how's it been? No need to be so nervous, we're friends aren't we?"

He doesn't respond, keeping his eyes locked on the ground, quivering fiercely.

I crouch down to him, and place my hand on his shoulder, glaring at him intensely, pushing my killing intent into his body through my arm.

"Hey, are you not going to respond? You know I'm talking to you right?"

He shudders, not a single part of his face still dry, as sweat leaks through his armor, darkening the wooden platform.

My tone and face completely changes as I speak in a cheerful way, stopping my killing intent and smiling brightly, as I share my blessing of the body with him, warm orange light glowing from the both of us.

"I just wanted to say that I was totally wrong and I completely forgive you for what you said, since you were just doing your job and I was acting like a spoiled brat!"

The guard finally turns his head, and looks up at me with a face full of relief.

"R-really? You forgive me?"

I keep my cheerful smile up as I keep my eyes closed, facing him.

"Yep!"

The guard starts sweating, even more profusely, from an instinctual fear, and creepiness running across his body as I begin to open my eyes.

"Better yet– you can even strangle me to death right here. That's what you said you wanted to do right?"

I say while glaring at him with pitch black eyes of insanity, looking like a maniac while he shakes terribly in horror, before abruptly stopping, as he falls unconscious, while a yellow liquid drips out of his armor..

"Tch, what a coward."

I say as I start to get back up, Agon's gaze quickly turning back to the ground.

"All of you get down there, and one of you carry him down as well."

Agon II and his conscious bodyguard instantly get up, sensitive from their fear of me, and quickly run down the platform, before returning to their position, their heads planted on the ground on the white marble floor.

Sigh– now it's time for the tough part. I hope there aren't too many who are corrupt or evil, and that they don't run away if they are. That'd be annoying since I only have one person who's strong enough, and that I can trust at my disposal; I imagine the other shadows are still guarding Dustin in his bed. I have to finish this up quickly and get the rest of the ingredients.

I walk up to the front of the platform, facing the training grounds, taking a deep breath before I clear my throat, getting ready to enhance it with mana and speak, before suddenly stopping just as I'm about to speak.

No, I need to get to Dustin quickly. I don't have the time to check if all of them are evil or not, they could even just choose to and answer. But even if they do answer at the same time and I can tell if they are evil or not, is truth not just what someone believes? One person could believe that something that is false, is true because they have convinced themselves of that lie. I don't have time to consult people's perspectives on what they believe and convince them otherwise. I'll need to use the perspective from a higher being, a universal perspective; an absolute truth.

I close my eyes and concentrate deeply, using all of my consciousnesses to form my image of an absolute truth from all my opinions and accumulated knowledge. The amount of information and the speed of the calculations so quick, the memories are split and stored in different consciousnesses. The moment I open my eyes, a third eye, in the shape of Pyro's Orange Sun, that shines much more brightly than the one in my left eye appears.

In that moment, I gain access to all the knowledge across all of my consciousnesses. My central consciousness, stationed in the center of the endless bookshelves in the library that is my mind. And for a second, I get the chance to ask a single question:

"Who is evil?"

My voice booms out, the vibration of my voice booming through the air. Supernaturally however, everyone in the training grounds hears it just as it is, at the same volume as any other.

Just a second later, the symbol of Pyro on my forehead loses its light and crumbles away. Yet to face the drawback, I stare across the training grounds where all the Holy Knights keep their heads down, staying still, in amazement as I see the ratio between those glowing in green, versus those in red.

Everyone– all of the Holy Knights here are good!

I look down at the obvious offenders who lie on the marble floor.

Well save for these five idiots. Every single one of them.

I look slightly past Agon II and his bodyguards, to Dustin's Shadow and Veran.

Ho... it's no surprise that Dustin's shadow is good but Veran as well? If he wasn't evil, why did he work with Agon II and obey every one of his commands? Well, I'm sure he has his own circumstances, the only thing that matters is that he's not evil. This just makes my life a lot easier.

Then, I shift my vision, directed at the eyes of the shadow, and then move my eyes back to Agon II, hoping that the shadow understood my signal.

Please kill them! I can barely keep my body upright!

Fortunately for me, he understood the assignment and in an instant, unseeable even by me, quickly unsheathes his sword and sheaths his sword in an instant, while the heads of Agon II and the bodyguards fly off their body all at the same time, as they roll around the floor for a short while, before they stop rolling.

What the hell? That was so fast, I couldn't even see it! He's definitely faster than that second homunculus I fought in the dungeon. I can only compare his speed to that of Dustin!

Out of nowhere, I suddenly start laughing out loud like a maniac.

"HAHAHAHA... Shadow, come here. I need your help to stand up."

He seemingly disappears, and teleports next to me, while he starts to lift my arm and go under it, placing it over his shoulders.

I can't believe Dustin created an organization that was all good, save for a few. All the more reason for me to keep working so that he can survive. A break would definitely be nice right now.

"LISTEN TO ME KNIGHTS, YOU HAVE PROVEN YOUR RIGHTEOUSNESS HERE TODAY, ALL OF YOU STILL BREATHING–"

What do I say? I wasn't planning on saying anything and I can't improvise anything on the spot. It's like my brain just shut down... Shit, I completely forgot about drawbacks.