Julia stared at Isaac for several long seconds before suddenly bursting into laughter.
"Information about the God of Axe and an Imperial Artifact? Why don't you also ask for my hand in marriage while you're at it? Maybe I can throw in a dowry too," she said between laughs.
She laughed so hard that tears formed in the corners of her eyes. Isaac simply stood there without reacting, waiting for her to finish. Before the laughter could continue any longer, the floating blue sphere of light spoke in a calm voice.
[He is serious.]
The laughter slowly faded from Julia's face. She looked back at Isaac, studying him more carefully this time.
The amusement disappeared completely when she realized he had not been joking. For a brief moment, she simply stared at him as if trying to understand whether he had lost his mind.
"An Imperial Artifact and information about a God. You do realize your scam is a little too blatant, right?" she said at last.
"It isn't a scam. I'm simply adjusting the price according to rarity and what I believe is potential. I'm confident that my fame will continue to rise. Naturally, my autograph will become more valuable over time," Isaac replied.
In reality, the price had nothing to do with rarity. It had everything to do with the customer standing in front of him.
Julia was an angel, and if anyone could possibly get hold of an Imperial Artifact, it would be someone connected to the Divine Realm. He also knew the request was excessive, but that was intentional. Starting with an impossible demand made the next negotiation much easier.
Julia shook her head almost immediately. There wasn't even a hint of hesitation in her expression.
"I can't give you an Imperial Artifact. It would require an enormous amount of Faith to bring one down from the Divine Realm. We don't even have a Saintess right now, so materializing something in the Material Realm costs even more than usual. So no, that isn't happening," she said.
Isaac didn't look disappointed. He simply moved on to his next offer. "Then how about the Ascender of the Mistborns helping my City instead?"
"Helping with what exactly? The Florathi situation, or the Great Dungeon?" she asked.
Isaac noticed the hidden meaning of that question immediately. Not even three days had passed since the incident involving the Third Priest, yet Julia already knew about it.
That meant the Divine Realm had been paying close attention to everything happening around him.
As for the Great Dungeon, she was probably assuming he wanted assistance to reach the Tower of Heaven and Hell as quickly as possible. She shouldn't know anything about the Catastrophe sleeping inside Emily.
"The Florathi situation," Isaac answered.
The Great Dungeon was another matter entirely. He had the bunnies, and as long as they continued growing stronger, he didn't need outside help there.
More importantly, he intended to keep their existence hidden for as long as possible. Using them against Florathi would only happen if there were absolutely no other choice.
The bunnies were one of his greatest trump cards. Now that everyone had seen what "Averon" could do by cloning his troops, he needed another hidden advantage. If someone eventually decided to attack his City, he wanted something that could completely catch them off guard.
[Deal.]
Fario answered so quickly that Isaac frowned. The response had come far too easily.
For someone who had just refused an Imperial Artifact without hesitation, agreeing to lend the Ascender of the Mistborns almost instantly felt strange. Isaac narrowed his eyes.
A thought quietly surfaced in his mind. Why had Fario come here in the first place?
Had this been his objective all along? Had he somehow expected Isaac to ask for help regarding Florathi?
Isaac dismissed the idea almost as soon as it appeared. That shouldn't be possible.
He had barely interacted with the other races directly since becoming a Lord, and nobody could observe what happened inside his City. Predicting his decisions so accurately shouldn't have been feasible.
Even so, the speed of the agreement bothered him. Something about the exchange felt carefully arranged.
[I can see you're wondering why I agreed. You will understand when you go to Florathi.] Fario's voice remained as calm as ever.
"What do you mean?" Isaac frowned. The answer only made him more suspicious.
[You will know. Just understand that if you don't go to Florathi, then— !@$!@$!@$!]
The sentence abruptly broke apart. Blue lightning exploded around the sphere of light, crackling violently through the air.
The familiar energy immediately caught Isaac's attention. He had seen that lightning before.
When Sera released power beyond what the System allowed, the same blue lightning had appeared to suppress her.
'The System is stopping him from saying whatever comes next,' Isaac realized.
Fario let out a low grunt but didn't resist. He simply waited until the lightning gradually disappeared.
Julia watched him with visible concern. She took a small step forward without thinking.
"Are you okay?" she asked.
[I'm fine.] Only after reassuring her did Fario turn back toward Isaac.
[I will sign a contract with you. My Ascender will assist you with the Florathi situation, and I will also tell you about the God of Axe.]
Isaac remained silent as Fario continued speaking. He wanted to hear the conditions before responding.
[However, you will receive that information on the God of Axe only after you conquer the Florathi, or at least reach a level where you stand equal to them. Giving you information about the God of Axe before that would simply paint a target on my back without any benefit. I need to know whether you are worth taking that risk for.]
Isaac's expression remained unreadable. He considered the proposal for a moment before finally speaking. "If you're trying to push me into fighting the Florathi Kingdom, then I'll have to decline your offer. I have no reason to start a war with another Kingdom. What the Third Priest did was an act of betrayal, but he represents only one faction. He doesn't represent the Florathi as a whole."
[That is why I said you need to reach their level if you don't plan to fight them. Of course, I believe you will end up fighting them,] Fario responded.
Isaac frowned at the response. The god's answer only left him with more questions than before.
Fario wanted him to go to Florathi, yet he also believed there was a high chance Isaac would end up fighting them. Those two ideas didn't seem to fit together unless there was something Isaac didn't know.
There was clearly something happening behind the scenes. It was something the Gods understood, but neither Isaac nor the other Lords had been told.
'Is this related to why the Florathi Emperor has remained in seclusion?' Isaac wondered. The thought lingered for a moment before he dismissed it.
There was no point trying to solve a puzzle without enough pieces. Whatever was happening would reveal itself eventually if it truly concerned him.
"Let's sign a contract," Isaac said.
Julia looked at him expectantly, clearly waiting for him to produce the Contract. Isaac shamelessly looked back at her without moving an inch.
Several awkward seconds passed between them. Eventually, Julia let out a helpless sigh.
"You're not even pretending to produce a Contract, are you?"
Isaac shrugged.
Julia clicked her tongue. With a flick of her wrist, a blank contract formed out of shimmering blue light in front of her.
Isaac could almost feel her reluctance as she spent even more Faith. She muttered under her breath while preparing the contract. "You're really making this expensive for me."
"You're the one who wanted my autograph," he replied.
Julia didn't argue further. She carefully wrote every condition that Isaac and Fario had agreed upon before presenting the completed contract to both of them.
After reading through the contents once, Fario and Isaac signed their names without making any changes. The agreement was officially complete.
Isaac looked at the contract for a brief moment after placing his signature on it. He considered activating his newly acquired God Domain skill just to test its effects.
The temptation disappeared almost immediately. If Fario somehow learned that breaking a contract of Isaac's God Domain skill could potentially make him Isaac's slave, the consequences would be catastrophic.
There was no reason to antagonize a god over simple curiosity. Some things were better left hidden until absolutely necessary.
With the contract settled, Isaac fulfilled his side of the agreement. He signed three separate sheets of paper before handing them over to Julia.
The angel accepted the autographs with obvious delight. Her earlier frustration disappeared almost instantly as she carefully put them away. Then she waved her hand. Before Isaac could react, both of them slowly rose into the air until they overlooked the entire city.
"I'll start the city fusion now," Julia said.
Behind her, enormous transparent hands made entirely of blue mana appeared one after another. They floated silently in the sky before stretching toward the horizon.
The giant hands grasped empty space and pulled.
The world itself seemed to fold.
In an instant, Fortified City 22 and Fortified City 62 appeared beside Isaac's city as though they had always been there. The vast distance separating the three cities simply ceased to exist.
Isaac quietly watched the impossible scene unfold. Even traveling at his maximum speed, reaching one city would have taken hours while the other required days.
Julia had erased all of that distance with nothing more than a simple motion of her hand. The sheer difference in power was difficult to comprehend.
'Angels and Gods really are on another level,' Isaac thought.
The giant mana hands snapped their fingers. Immediately, the three cities began separating into enormous blocks. Roads, walls, buildings, and districts detached cleanly from one another like massive construction pieces waiting to be rearranged. Despite the scale, every movement remained incredibly precise.
Isaac took out a carefully prepared map and handed it to Julia. It contained the layout he had planned long before today.
"Please rebuild everything according to this design," he said.
"Okay!" Julia accepted the map with both hands before quickly reading through it. A cheerful smile spread across her face, as she thought about going back and selling the autograph.
Several mana hands held the blueprint while the others immediately began moving the detached city blocks. Entire districts shifted across the landscape before seamlessly connecting with one another according to Isaac's design.
The reconstruction progressed with astonishing speed. Thousands of homes, roads, and defensive walls were rearranged.
While Julia focused on the reconstruction, Fario's attention drifted elsewhere. The glowing sphere turned toward the farmland near Isaac's mansion.
[Those are quite impressive crops. The quality of the land is exceptional as well,] the God said in obvious admiration.
"Thank you," Isaac replied.