The Evil God Summoned by the Saintess

Melina knew that Hilia always slacked off during meetings, so after the meeting, she took Hilia to a private room to explain the situation to her.

"Originally, Blake or I were supposed to infiltrate, but if one of us is absent from the front battlefield, it will definitely arouse the vigilance of the Deep Sea."

"Really?" Hilia sensed she wasn’t telling the truth.

"Alright, the real situation is, Blake doesn’t understand arrays, so there’s no way."

Melina did not mention that she didn’t really understand them either.

Hilia said, "You don’t need to understand, you just need to be able to steal the access key to the arrays."

Saying this, Hilia slapped her forehead, "Okay, it is indeed a bit difficult. What about those Tier Four and Tier Five big shots? Can’t they do it? Like Mr. Alvis."

"Alvis isn’t here. He has more important work to do. Mr. Pharos invited him to come and rebuild the protective array of Letes City, which has been scheduled for a month later."

"What about the others?"

Melina shook her head, "During this period, besides attacking, we’ve conducted a comprehensive investigation on the Deep Sea Fortress. We have sent Tier Four and Tier Five Mages in, but as soon as they entered the fortress, the entire fortress’s alarm was triggered. They’ve enhanced the monitoring in the fortress’s protective array with high-tier mages, which is on 24/7. Any high-tier mage passing through would trigger an alert."

"Low-tier won’t?"

"Not sure, but we have also sent quite a few low-tier mages to try to penetrate within, without triggering an alert. However, the defense is extremely tight inside, and a Tier Three Mage going in would be of no use."

Melina looked at Hilia, "But Hilia, you’re different. News from Letes City says you single-handedly killed a Tier Four heretic, and it was a normal Tier Four Mage. This is something an ordinary mage cannot accomplish."

"At the same time, you are proficient with arrays, even Mr. Alvis has to stay silent about it. In a fortress full of runes, you can detect traps at any time, without fear of being discovered. However..."

Melina shook her head.

"Infiltration is indeed dangerous. Half of the people oppose letting you infiltrate. Even if we pretend to attack and make all the heretics run out, we can’t guarantee that there are no Tier Four or Five heretics hiding inside."

Hilia said, "How can a heretical group have so many high-tier heretics?"

"They have been an active organization since the Era of Calamity. The leader, like the Holy Master, is a burgeoning new mage after the calamity and has been active everywhere for hundreds of years, recruiting hidden genius mages from all over, converting them into heretics."

"The power of corruption causes various abnormalities and even reduces lifespan massively, but it can quickly boost a person’s power, unlike us, who need to slowly improve step by step."

Hilia thought of a question, "Speaking of heretics who rise through corruption, do they not need ascension?"

Melina smiled slightly, "Of course not. Ascension God Stairs are only for mages. They always use corruption as their power, and the Ascension God Stairs have long disappeared. Or rather, their test is a reverse ’Ascension God Stairs’. We go up, they go down. We have ascension trials, they just need a simple leap."

Hilia was enlightened, "No wonder we always see so many powerful heretics at heretic bases."

"But they only have the power level with no spells to harness it. Their actual combat capability is counted as one tier lower. However, mages above Tier Four are an exception. At Tier Four and above, they can’t be mass-produced quickly. This recent mass production of Tier Four by the Deep Sea is the first time we’ve seen it. But such Tier Fours have severe weaknesses and can’t perform as normal Tier Fours, which Hilia can easily purify."

Hilia nodded.

"Our plan is to lure out all the heretics from the fortress, while you infiltrate inside to find the access key you mentioned. Once you succeed or encounter danger, use the teleportation badge to return."

"Can the teleportation badge be used?"

"Generally not, but we discovered that the Star Spirit Network can be used inside the fortress. At that time, you send us a message, and we will attack the arrays of the fortress with full force to open the sealed space, then it can be used."

Hilia thought for a moment and suddenly thought of someone, "Yesterday I saw the Holy Master come to Letes City. Isn’t he coming to have a look? If it’s the Holy Master, he should be able to ignore the warning, right?"

Melina said, "The Holy Master is elusive, and we don’t know where he is now. He didn’t come here, only sent us a message asking about progress."

Hilia remembered that after the Holy Master appeared yesterday, he immediately went to chase the two suspicious heretics she had reported, and then disappeared.

Hilia didn’t know where he went, only remembering he left in a hurry, seemingly pressed for time.

At the time, she thought the Holy Master was coming to the Golden Apple Stone Forest, but it turned out he wasn’t.

Now that I mention it, I seem to have forgotten to convey Mr. Pharos’s words to the Holy Master...

"Let me think about it first," Hilia said.

Melina nodded, "Alright, no rush, prepare during this time and clean up the outer points."

...

Returning from Melina, Hilia fell into deep thought.

If there is a teleportation badge, it’s doable, but the absence of a magic puppet is a big problem.

While her combat power wouldn’t be as directly diminished as other mages, it would still be somewhat reduced. Without a magic puppet, Hilia felt there’s a 90% chance she wouldn’t be able to beat a Tier Four heretic.

"So, after all..."

Knock knock knock—

A knock on the door suddenly sounded, and Hilia went to open it, finding it was Alina.

"Hilia, your magic puppet was damaged in the Letes City defense battle. We’ve already contacted the League Committee, and they agree to help you customize a magic puppet now. Do you want to start the customization now?"

Hilia was taken aback, "Now? Doesn’t the League’s magic puppet customization have to be Tier Four?"

Alina replied, "Yes, but rank isn’t absolute, and you can also temporarily seal the rank of the magic puppet to match your strength. If you customize now, the League Committee will come over this afternoon to get your requirements, and it is expected to take about 10 days for the magic puppet to be delivered."

"So fast?" Hilia was surprised, "Since when did the Northern Alliance become so efficient?"

Alina said with a hint of annoyance, "The League Committee isn’t exclusive to the Northern Alliance. It’s a union of all empires on the Starfall Continent. It only delegates authority to the host empire depending on which empire holds it. The Committee’s role is to oversee and award prizes, while the respective empire resolves judges, venue construction, etc., on its own."

"Oh, so that’s how it is. Then let them come."

"Alright,"

Coming to discuss customizing a magic puppet at this time...

Hilia guessed it was either Melina or Blake’s doing.

Feeling uneasy without a magic puppet, Hilia didn’t hesitate to agree.

She took out two Hearts of the Magic Puppet, torn with indecision.

"Should I use the water element or the life element?"