Hitman with a Badass System
chapter-848

After initiating her own order against the Dark Lord, Salesi returned to her room. Her husband, Castien Ashton, was visiting one of their cities to oversee the relief program. The city was affected by famine, and the entire Nagaland depended on the charity of the empress. Salesi's was a spacious oval room with walls the color of a burning flame. The smell of sweet gardenia candles engulfed the room. On the right side of the room was a royal red sofa set for Salesi to sit and relax, looking at the bamboo garden through the window. Although she was supposed to stay and sleep with Castien in the king's room, she chose to be in her own room. This place had become her refuge and safe haven throughout her almost two decades of marriage. Her bedroom only held the things that were very precious to her. She let no one inside the room, including her husband and the maids. As a matter of fact, she cleaned her room by herself instead of ordering the maids to.

She decorated the walls with several portraits that reminded her of her life as the Queen of Nagaland. Almost no one knew about Salesi's life before she became the queen. Some believed she was a noble family heir, while others believed she seduced Castien after Queen Adelia's untimely death. But Salesi couldn't care less about the speculations or those who opposed her because they were still loyal to Adelia and her murdering maniac of a daughter, Gaya Ashton.

Adelia closed the door behind her and walked to the window to see the serenity of the bamboo garden outside. She could connect with her inner thoughts while she was in her room. Her mind established a sense of peace as she stared at the peaceful garden outside. Whenever her life in Nagaland got tougher, which happened so often because of Gaya and Adelia's loyalists, she would come to her room and think things out thoroughly in order to make life easier. The sound of the bamboo fountain canceled out the sounds of everything around her.

As she looked at the bamboo garden, a puff of smoke came from one of the portraits depicting a village. The smoke slowly took the shape of a middle-aged man with milk-white hair. The man hovered in the air behind her, waiting for Salesi to turn around. She made him wait for a few minutes and then turned around.

"Has everything gone according to our plan?" asked the man.

"It went better than we expected. You know how to pick them, Andreas," Salesi addressed the man as Andreas, the Supreme Guardian. She was not wrong, as the man before her was indeed Andreas. Just like the soul inside Noah's ring, the man before Salesi was another part of Andreas's whole soul. The only difference was the soul part in Salesi's room was much younger compared to the soul piece inside Noah's ring.

"Except my disciples," Andreas sighed.

"You didn't choose Noah Winston, Andreas. He was born a god, just like the Dark Lord. You chose Noah because you wanted to train Noah in the fight against the Dark Lord," said Salesi.

"It seems like my other soul part is doing a bang-up job training Noah. I wouldn't be here if he wasn't," Andreas sighed. Although both Andreas' derived from the same soul, they became separate beings. Besides, the Andreas with Noah was in existence longer than this Andreas. As a result, mentor Andreas lost some memories, including the other soul pieces in existence.

"Don't underestimate Noah, Andreas. The Dark Lord tried to get him pickle when he said the Supreme Guardian was alive and with Noah. Everyone thought it's going to put a target on his back. But he played the situation well and turned him into a ladder to reach the Supreme Guardian position. And from what I've been hearing, he was handling everything well," Salesi's praise surprised Andreas. He was with her for two decades, and he had never heard Salesi praise her own daughter once, let alone someone else.

"He just needs a little push, and that's why we are here. Aren't we?" Salesi asked as Andreas nodded. Saleis strolled toward the sofa with Andreas hovering beside her like a friend. He was the only one who knew the real Salesi, and she was the only person who knew of his existence. They had been collaborating for almost two decades. Twenty years ago, Salesi and Andreas orchestrated Adelia's death to usurp the throne of Nagaland. Adelia's family, the Wraiths, was building a powerful kingdom to support the Dark Lord when he arrived in this world. They almost succeeded in their plan because before Salesi took the throne, Nagaland was powerful enough to take on the elven empire itself. Gaya blamed Salesi for the downfall of Nagaland, and she was right to do so. To be precise, Gaya was half right. Salesi's rule was indeed the reason for Nagaland's downfall, but what Gaya didn't know was that Salesi planned everything. Salesi's sole reason for being the Queen of Nagaland was to keep Nagaland in check because the last thing the world needed was a superpower to back the Dark Lord in his war against the world.

So far, Salesi's plan was going without a hiccup. Her next move was to build a shadow order to fight the Dark Lord in ways the Guardian Guild would never dare. She built an image of a kind and compassionate queen for this very moment. Everything she sacrificed and went through was finally coming together.

"I think he needs more than just a little push. I think we need Noah to see that the longer he ignores the Dark Lord, the more people will suffer. Power comes with responsibility. Noah needs to learn that one way or another," Andreas's voice was grave. Fortunately, he lacked a physical body and was restricted from leaving Salesi's side. Otherwise, Noah would have had two mentors to argue with. Noah thought his current mentor was pushing him hard toward fighting the Dark Lord, but he didn't know how bad it could have been if this Andreas had been inside Noah's ring instead.

"Destruction is easier than creation, Andreas. You cannot blame the guy too much. He's clearly doing his best,"

"Why are you defending him so much, I wonder?'

"Because you aren't. Like it or not, only Noah could kill the Dark Lord. So we should help Noah instead of criticizing him,"

Andreas sighed, nodding.

"You are right. I just hope he stops wasting time and cuts down the Dark Lord's army,"

"We have put our plans in motion, Andreas. We will start dismantling the Dark Lord's empire piece by piece, starting from the kingdoms in the Southern continent,"

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(An hour ago)

The gathering went more successful than Salesi and Xanali expected. It was really surprising for them to see how many people were boiling with rage inside toward the Dark Lord. They all needed an outlet and a leader who directed this anger and utilized them against the dark army. When Saleisi slowly filled in the void they desperately hoped to be filled, they were all easily swayed to join the order.

While Salesi was addressing everyone's concerns, Xanali left the room for a moment and brought back a whiteboard with several portraits stuck to it. Many of those portraits were hand drawn and resembled Michael. Surprisingly, some of them highlighted the Olympus around Michael's wrist. The people in the hall turned their gazes at the whiteboard and the portraits. They silently expected Salesi to explain what the hell those portraits were except the ones that had Michael's face.

While most of their eyes were glued to the whiteboard, Salesi flicked her wrist as a brass spyglass finished with various intricate runes appeared on the table before her. If one looked closely at the spyglass, they could see a tiny 'H' embossed among the runes. The H was really, but it was there, symbolizing the creator of this spyglass.

"To defeat the Dark Lord, we need to know both his strengths and weaknesses. Until recently, I thought he didn't have a chip in his armor. But this little thing changed my thoughts by exposing a crucial weakness," Salesi paused for a moment, letting everyone boil with curiosity. Everyone leaned forward. Then, Salesi slowly gave them an answer.

"The Dark Lord is not as strong as we thought while he was in the Southern continent,"

Everyone was visibly shocked to hear Salesi because her words contradicted what they believed. As the world knew, no one could use cultivation power within the void line. Hence, the moment someone entered the Southern continent, they would become mortals, even the immortals were not an exception. That was the reason the Southern continent looked like a new world to the cultivators and why they avoided the place. Moreover, that was why Michael chose the Southern continent as his home base because in a world where no one could use energy, one who could would be the god.

"This spyglass was built to gauge someone's cultivation level when the void effect hit the continent of Elon and Ozer. But, it could determine someone's cultivation even when they were inside the void. No one bothered to look for someone's cultivation in the Southern continent because there was no point in that until the Dark Lord started to use arch energy within the void line," Salesi placed the spyglass back on the table and continued.

"Although he uses energy, the moment he stepped into the void line, his cultivation went from Immortal to Core Formation," Salesi slowly turned around and placed her hand on the portrait of olympus.

"This thing around his wrist is what gives him the ability to use cultivation within the void line. If we take this out, he'll be as weak as a commoner,"

"How certain are you of this?" asked Victoria.

"I'd bet my life on it. Each of you will get one when we wrap this up. So if you don't believe me, you are welcome to take this and monitor the Dark Lord from one of our safe houses, "