The Sorcerer's Handbook

On the 72nd floor of Senheiser Tower in Vanmura.

The Red Hats were battered and bruised. Deadshot Light and Weeping Sand Cliose were panting heavily, their concentration slipping as their ability to maintain their Sacred Realm faltered. It was a clear sign that their mana was nearly depleted.

In truth, the battle had long since ended. Under the overwhelming pressure of the family's Gospel Points, even Three-Winged sorcerers couldn't break through the blockade the Six-Emblem leaders had erected. Even if the leaders were merely borrowing a fraction of the Omniscient Weaver's power, it was far beyond the reach of ordinary mortals.

It was precisely this immense pool of Gospel Points that allowed successive Six-Emblem leaders to expand their family without reservation. Under its influence, even Sacred Realm sorcerers willingly split their souls as family insurance, and Legendary sorcerers went to extraordinary lengths to design Mermaid Weed Farms for the family. It wasn't just a matter of fostering loyalty. Family prosperity directly amplified the leader's personal power. The Gospel Points the entire family accumulated acted as a reservoir, fueling the leader's combat strength.

This bizarre family system wouldn't work in any other city, let alone another nation. How would ordinary members willingly hand over their hard-earned Gospel Points? Only those dazed by the Beauty Mist would submit themselves so completely. The first-generation Six-Emblem sorcerers who pioneered the Mermaid Weed Industry certainly weren't benevolent. One could say they were "selfish enough to want everyone else to be selfless."

Yet, as time passed and the dreamscape grew, each new leader found themselves just as controlled by the family as they were in control of it. The collective dreams concentrated the family's loyalty, often supplanting the leader's personal will. Having been immersed in the family's favors since childhood and subtly molded by the reincarnated dreamscape, a leader's personality might be capricious, lazy, diligent, or playful, but deep down, they always prioritize the family above all else. They became, in effect, "so selfless that even their own self-interest was overridden."

As strange as it seemed, and despite its obvious flaws, this loop of selfless leaders and compliant members allowed Vanmura's eccentric system to function sustainably, representing an advanced form of productivity within the Gospel Kingdom.

The Six-Emblem leaders didn't even need to exert themselves. A mere gesture from this colossal entity was enough to crush the Red Hats under its oppressive aura.

Yet, because the leaders placed the family above everything, no matter how angry they were, they wouldn't kill the Red Hats. As an official imperial unit, the Red Hats represented the dignity of Isa and the Gospel. Even Quinna, despite her rage over the harm done to her family members, had only severely injured Light without delivering a fatal blow. The rest of the Red Hats escaped with superficial wounds. After all, if a leader personally executed a Red Hat, they could forget ever ranking on any leaderboard again.

The Six-Emblem leader merely intended to wear the Red Hats down to exhaustion. Coincidentally, that was exactly what Light and his team wanted, too.

The moment Light saw Ashe leave, he knew he could never catch the doomsday fugitive. But he still had to keep the Red Hats entangled with the Six-Emblem leaders, buying as much time as possible against these Vanmuran leaders.

Exposed as he was, it was impossible for Ashe to remain in Vanmura. Once the imperial orders from Isa arrived, even the Senheiser family wouldn't be able to protect him. Quinna's audacity was merely a gamble against the clock.

The moment Ashe tried to escape by car, the Good Moonlight Agency stationed on Vanmura's outskirts would be ready to intercept him. The real danger now was preventing the Six-Emblem leaders from chasing after Ashe and dragging him back. This was why Light had to hold the line. Even if they were completely outmatched, he had to entangle the leaders and waste their time. However...

"Sigh," Light plopped down onto the floor, setting aside his heavy, multi-kilogram sniper rifle. "No more fighting."

"Fine," Quinna said coldly. "I'll lock you up and interrogate you—"

Light took out a pair of handcuffs and casually cuffed himself to Cliose. "Nope. Red Hats Officer Cliose has already apprehended me. If you want to transfer a prisoner, submit a formal request to the Red Hats branch in Azura."

Quinna countered, "She won't be able to protect you. You murdered two civilians right in front of us. Even if we let you go, the Gospel will declare you a criminal. This isn't just an imperial warrant. It's Gospel hostility. You'll be ostracized, hunted by your own kind, and despised by the Gospel. You'll have nowhere left to stand, and you'll never hear the Gospel again."

Cliose stared at Light, hesitating. She couldn't comprehend why he had cuffed them together. The Six-Emblem leaders probably assumed she would secretly let him go, but today was the first time they had ever met! Releasing a criminal privately would tank her Gospel evaluations, and there was no way Cliose would risk that.

In fact, for over two hours now, Cliose had been consumed by doubt.

Why would Light pursue Ashe at the cost of shooting innocent civilians? Didn't he know this would cost him his Red Hats status and earn the Gospel's ire? Is he actually after Ashe... or is he trying to commit suicide?

Cliose couldn't make sense of it. She was chasing Ashe for Gospel Points, leaderboard rankings, and imperial rewards. In contrast, Light's actions yielded absolutely nothing, and they succeeded only in dragging him deeper into ruin.

Compared to Ashe, Light terrified Cliose far more. She couldn't fathom the reasons behind his actions or make sense of him at all.

Light said nonchalantly, "It's not that serious. For a Sacred Realm sorcerer, there are always ways to survive."

"But why?" Quinna asked, voicing the very question that had been tormenting Cliose. "I truly cannot fathom why you would go this far."

"Didn't I just say? It's for the Gospel."

"That's just a slogan, isn't it?"

Light replied smoothly, "To a family-minded person like you, yes, it's indeed just a slogan. But, if I may ask, Leader Quinna... Why are you protecting Ashe?"

At that moment, the other five leaders shifted their gaze to Quinna.

They knew for a fact that the leader of a Six-Emblem family always acted for their bloodline's benefit. However, they still couldn't understand why she would harbor a fugitive wanted by the imperial family. Directly opposing the Empire was a perilous gamble.

Quinna took a deep breath. "It all began twenty years ago, with my daughter, Annan—"

The man wearing glasses interjected, "Please, Senheiser, fast-forward to the present."

"In short, Annan inherited the legacy of the Dolan family, granting her the ability to influence the Woven Festival. She also discovered that the second ranking is intrinsically tied to the six great families. To secure a place for her companions on that list, she decided to use the Senheiser family's Reincarnation Dream to manipulate the Gospel's judgment."

Quinna leaned forward and said in a commanding tone, "Barring any unforeseen disasters, Ashe and his companions will appear on the second future ranking. And when they do, the Six-Emblem will appear right alongside them at the Woven Festival. Why? Because Ashe and his companions will officially become part of the Senheiser family."

Light tilted his head. "You sound remarkably certain that Ashe Heath will join the Senheiser."

Quinna raised an eyebrow. When she spoke, there was an unmistakable note of triumph in her voice. "Of course. Ashe's fiancée is my daughter, Annan. Even if something goes awry, I have backup plans. One way or another, Ashe's name will be on the Senheiser family registry."

In that moment, Quinna's true intentions became crystal clear to everyone in the room. She was securing the continuity of her bloodline.

In the past, the Six-Emblem families had paid little mind to the Woven Festival. For houses boasting a millennium of accumulated wealth and power, its rewards were mere icing on the cake. They were pleasant to have, but entirely non-essential.

However, with the Art Ranking predicting a future consumed by apocalyptic chaos, everything changed. It was a catastrophe so vast that even the Gospel Kingdom would be powerless to resist, leaving Vanmura with no choice but to await its doom.

Ever since the Art Ranking emerged, the question of how to preserve their legacies had haunted the leaders. Now, Quinna had provided the ultimate answer. She didn't need to figure out a path to survival herself. She just needed the Woven Festival to manifest it.

The Gospel was an all-knowing, omnipotent wishing machine, and the Woven Festival was a future etched in stone. If the Senheiser family appeared on that future ranking, it meant they were guaranteed to survive the coming apocalypse, safely anchored for the next fifty years.

To Quinna, protecting Ashe and his companions wasn't a matter of charity. Those outsiders were her ticket to the future. Binding them to her family meant boarding the only ark capable of surviving the end of days.

The other leaders nodded in quiet agreement, fully endorsing Quinna's calculated gambit.

Yet, a grim reality loomed beneath their approval. If only the Senheiser family appeared on the future ranking, recognized by the Gospel as the sole survivors fifty years from now, then the Six-Emblem would shrink to only one emblem. Vanmura would carry only the Senheiser name.

"But don't you think it might be simpler to just kill Ashe now?" Light asked, his voice cutting through the silence. "Perhaps that might avert the disaster entirely..."

The man in a heavy coat shot back, "Impossible! That is the future predicted by the Woven Festival. It is absolute and immutable! No sorcerer, not even a Legendary one, possesses the power to conjure a catastrophe capable of destroying the Gospel Kingdom."

"Instead of harming Ashe Heath, we should treat him as our beacon into the darkness," the man with glasses agreed, nodding firmly. "The Senheiser family is doing exactly what must be done."

Light lowered his eyelids and let out a soft, unreadable chuckle.

Right then, as the Vanmura clock tower began to chime, everyone's Book of Gospel snapped open simultaneously, each revealing a glittering bookmark. They knew instantly what it meant. The Woven Festival had updated precisely on schedule.

The bespectacled man turned his book open. Despite his usually expressionless face, his eyes flared with sudden excitement. "It really is the Family Ranking!"

The man in the coat glanced over his shoulder and let out a heavy, defeated sigh. "Well... looks like it's finally time for us to change our surnames to Senheiser."

[Family Ranking]

[Family Ranking No.10: Mist Spirit Clan · Senheiser]