CHAPTER 196: CHAPTER 192: SOLIA’S GRACIOUS GIFT

Since the conquest against the Deca wasn’t producing any results, the Solia kingdom did the only thing it could and closed its borders for everyone.

The armies and the adjudicators were left outside the borders to destroy the Deca, while everyone else was prohibited from entering the kingdom. Simultaneously, those who were outside at the time of the declaration had their citizenships temporarily rescinded.

The sewers and tunnels were constantly under watch, so no one entered the kingdom through there. It was clear the Holy Kingdom wasn’t willing to take any chances until the God of Decay was dead.

Unfortunately for them, their actions couldn’t stop Blaze as Fester was already deep within the kingdom’s farm town.

Shilia was the closest hub of food and grains for the Solia Kingdom and was located right on the southern border. Coincidentally, it was also the nearest city to the Deca tribe.

It was extensively guarded since over three-fifths of the kingdom’s food supply depended on Shilia.

It would be a shame if someone were to contaminate.

Blaze smiled as Fester infiltrated deeper within the territory. But that wasn’t enough. He literally knew nothing about the Solia other than the basic stuff.

His usual method of consuming people to gain information wasn’t effective against the kingdom because it rarely let its people venture deep into enemy territory. It was also why he couldn’t use contagion to corrupt a Solian.

He could try capturing them, but then again, the common folk wouldn’t have deep, sealed secrets that he wanted.

While Blaze was confident that no power in Sadarla could defeat him, he didn’t want to be arrogant and launch an attack on an enemy of unknown capabilities.

Little did he know that an opportunity would come knocking on his door soon.

"Y-Your Eminence!" a woman came running inside Blaze’s ’hut’.

She wasn’t alone. A few more tribesmen were following her, and all of them looked equally scared and somewhat enraged.

"What is it?" he asked.

"Your temple... those Solians are approaching it!"

Blaze raised an eyebrow.

The Solia kingdom had been utmost careful before engaging the enemy. They rarely, if ever, confronted someone directly, often using the territories around their target to cut off supply or wage small skirmishes.

If they were heading towards his ship, then there could be one of three possible reasons.

First, they were desperate to get rid of them for some reason.

Second, someone might be posing as the Solians to take advantage of the growing resentment of the Deca tribe.

Or the third, it was the Solians, and they were attacking the ship to lure him out and deal with him.

However, the thought that rattled him most was, how did someone learn about the location of the crashed ship? This was a primitive world without any mapping tools or satellites.

Not even the tribesmen knew about it since Blaze had always ensured to take random detours before approaching the ship.

So that’s how it is.

While Blaze was wondering about it, the tribesmen looked at one another before continuing.

"We think they captured some of our men and... one of them spilled the beans."

"Is that so?" Blaze nodded. "This is really concerning. To think they’d dare to invade our territory without any provocation. It’s unforgivable."

"Yes, Your Eminence! We must teach them a lesson they’d never forget!"

"True, we should do that," Blaze enthusiastically nodded along. "But first, there’s something else."

Strange tentacles shot out of the ground, impaling the tribesmen before him. Their eyes widened in shock from the sudden attack. People beyond the hut were shocked, but none made any noise.

In the months, Blaze had turned each and every one of them into his fanatics controlled by contagion. Someone would betray him? It was impossible.

Blood gushed out of the impaled ones, and with it, their disguises faded, revealing their unblemished skin and well-maintained hair, unlike the unkempt one of the tribe.

These people were from Solia. As for the clothes, they were probably from the tribesmen the Solians had captured.

Yes, Blaze was aware of the captured people. While he didn’t care about them, their minds were technically linked with his. Despite that, whenever he tried casting contagion on them through the captured tribals, it always failed.

It was as if a strange protective barrier was stopping them from getting corrupted. It was a strange thing, as something like that didn’t even exist within the Collective.

His greatest weapon, that brought the Collective to its knees, was rendered useless on such a backwater planet. It was both a cause of worry and that of joy.

If he could get his hands on the said barrier, he could, in theory, sever the link of the so-called system that they used to control everything.

Maybe this barrier was the reason the Collective didn’t invade Sadarla.

But he could think about that later.

"H-How... did you know?" the woman from before questioned.

"I wouldn’t be much of a god if I got fooled by the likes of you," Blaze sneered, patting her head. "You can die now. I’ll make sure to treat you gently for the gift you’ve given me."

The woman clearly wanted to swat his hands away, but due to the blood loss, she was too weak to do anything but move her mouth. The others were already dead, but the woman was quite tenacious and refused to die.

What she thought to be defiance, Blaze only saw as entertainment. After all, it had been a while since he had seen such a nonsensical act

Eventually, she died, and Blaze retracted the spikes back into the ground along with the corpses.

"I shall meditate to quell my rage," he told the tribesmen. "Do not approach the hut for three days."

The tribesmen quickly nodded as Blaze disappeared inside the hut. After a minute, he kicked the ground, and a secret passage appeared. It was his true base of operations, a lair which Fester had painstakingly dug and built over the months.

It wasn’t grand as the lair back on Earth, but it served the purpose as it held a flat spire. Blaze had built it using the corpses in the Deca tribe’s graveyard as a secondary spire location.

The corpses of the Solians had already been implanted into the spire, waiting for Blaze to explore and exploit their memories and knowledge to the best of his abilities.

"Let’s see what secret you’ve been hiding from me."