Isaac and Emily exchanged surprised glances before looking back at Sage Sea. Neither of them had expected him to say he could interfere with something left behind by a God.
"Sir Sage Sea, are you saying you can deal with the protection given to him by the God?" Emily asked.
"It won’t be easy. I can’t remove the protection permanently. However, if I obtain several materials, I can temporarily suppress it. During that time, you can tame him without worrying about the divine protection interfering," Sage Sea replied.
"Alright. Tell me what materials you need. I’ll bring them," Isaac said.
Without wasting any time, Sage Sea listed every material he required. Isaac quietly memorized the list while one of his clones checked the Market through the clone.
A few moments later, the total cost appeared before him. His expression immediately darkened.
Two hundred Gold Coins.
For a few seconds, Isaac simply stared at the number. He checked the prices again one by one, hoping the calculation was wrong, but the result remained exactly the same.
"Is it that expensive?" Emily noticed the change in his expression.
"...Not really," Isaac replied.
Emily could tell he was lying.
But Isaac couldn’t help it. Two hundred Gold Coins were enough to strengthen an ordinary city considerably, and only powerful City Lords could spend it without thinking twice.
Isaac rubbed his forehead before forcing himself to calm down. He could only comfort himself by remembering that the Purification Cult member was extraordinarily powerful, and he would be worth far more than two hundred Gold Coins.
Sage Sea watched Isaac’s conflicted expression for a moment before letting out a quiet chuckle.
Isaac gave him a helpless look.
"I’ll use the last summoning scroll while you prepare the materials," Emily said, after giving him a hug so he could feel better.
"Go ahead." Isaac nodded without objection.
Emily took out the final summoning scroll and activated it. Ancient runes lit up across its surface before the parchment dissolved into countless particles of light, which quickly gathered together to form a glowing portal.
A tall, thin man stepped through the portal. His face was filled with anger before he had even fully emerged.
"I don’t care who you are," the man said through clenched teeth, "but I’ll agree to form a contract as long as you help me take revenge for—"
His voice abruptly stopped.
Isaac and Emily both stared at him.
The man standing before them was Beroga.
The leader of the Purification Cult branch in their Sector. He had attacked Isaac’s city and barely escaped with his life.
For several seconds, neither side spoke. Beroga stared at Isaac and Emily, while they silently stared back at him.
An awkward silence filled the area.
Under normal circumstances, Isaac would’ve attacked Beroga without hesitation. However, Beroga had appeared through the summoning contract, which meant Isaac couldn’t harm him before a contract was formed.
At the same time, Isaac realized something else.
’He’s dead.’
His eyes narrowed slightly as countless thoughts flashed through his mind. The other prisoners were still alive because the Elemental Spirit of Machine hadn’t dealt any lethal damage. They had merely been incapacitated.
That meant Beroga had survived escaping from the city.
So how had he died afterward?
Did he encounter a powerful monster while fleeing? Or had someone inside the Purification Cult killed him after he became weakened, hoping to replace him as the branch leader?
One possibility after another surfaced in Isaac’s mind.
Meanwhile, Beroga’s expression gradually changed. After staring at Isaac for a while, he seemed to reach a decision and quietly turned around, intending to leave.
Before he could take more than a single step, Isaac suddenly appeared beside him and casually placed a hand on his shoulder.
"Hey, why are you in such a hurry to leave?" Isaac asked with an easy smile.
The smile looked completely harmless, but Isaac was suppressing the urge to kill the man standing beside him. If not for the summoning contract, Beroga would already be dead. Again.
Beroga let out a cold snort and reached toward Isaac’s hand, intending to push it away. Before he could do so, Isaac calmly continued speaking.
"Someone killed you, didn’t they? You were about to ask us to help you get revenge. Since that’s what brought you here, why don’t we help you?"
Beroga slowly turned his head and looked at Isaac with a strange expression. His face practically asked whether Isaac had lost his mind.
Half the reason Beroga had ended up dead was because of Isaac.
The attack on the city had failed because of him. Beroga had lost his subordinates because of him. Now the same person was offering to help him take revenge.
Beroga remained completely silent.
Isaac’s smile never changed.
"Are you sure you don’t want revenge against Mother?" Isaac asked.
Beroga flinched.
It wasn’t an obvious reaction. His shoulders only stiffened for a brief moment, and his eyes flickered almost imperceptibly, but Isaac noticed both.
His smile remained exactly the same, but several suspicions in his mind were immediately confirmed.
The moment Isaac realized Beroga was dead, he had suspected Mother might have been involved. Beroga’s reaction only made that suspicion stronger.
The reason wasn’t difficult to understand.
Sera, the angel, had arrived in his city under Mother’s orders. Isaac had already confirmed that through System Inspect, so there was no room for doubt.
More importantly, Sera had possessed an artifact capable of countering the Purification Cult’s Time Stop artifact.
At first, Isaac had found that coincidence rather strange.
How had Sera happened to possess such a perfect counter?
There were only two reasonable explanations. The first was that she was an angel with access to all kinds of powerful treasures. The second was that Mother had personally given her the artifact.
Isaac believed the second explanation was far more likely.
Mother’s organization, Three Color, opposed Apocalypse, while the Purification Cult openly supported Apocalypse. The two organizations were natural enemies, so it wasn’t surprising that Three Color possessed an artifact specifically designed to counter the Purification Cult’s Time Stop artifact.
The real question was why Mother had arranged everything this way.
Isaac believed one reason was to observe his true strength. By placing him in a dangerous situation, she could see how capable he really was.
Now, however, another possibility appeared.