Chapter 155 - - 155 - Flipping the Board

Chapter 155: Chapter - 155 - Flipping the Board

The temple arrest was supposed to be temporary.

Queen Veyra had been confined to her chambers for three days while the Sunfire Temple’s inquisitors conducted their investigation. She had been cooperative—calm, even—answering every question with the poise of a woman who had spent decades navigating the treacherous waters of court politics. She had offered no resistance, no defiance, and no desperate attempts to escape.

That should have been the first warning.

Lucien stood in the shadows of the palace’s eastern wing, watching quietly as the inquisitors prepared for the final phase of their investigation. The air in the stone corridor was cold and heavy with the scent of burning incense. The lead inquisitor—a severe woman named Sister Mira, her face carved from granite and her eyes burning with holy fire—was reviewing the evidence one final time.

"There is no trace of demonic cultivation," Sister Mira said, her voice tight with frustration. "The soul-binding pacts that Queen Veyra is claiming actually exist are anchored to a divine artifact of unknown origin. The oaths are legitimate. The princess’s breakthrough shows no signs of forbidden techniques."

"Then what are we doing here?" asked the second inquisitor, a younger man named Brother Narel. He adjusted the heavy silver emblem on his chest, looking restless. "If the accusations are groundless, this whole affair is a waste of our time."

"We are here because Queen Veyra requested our intervention," Sister Mira replied, her jaw tightening. "She claimed the kingdom was in a spiritual crisis. She claimed the princess was using demonic techniques to enslave the court. She claimed—"

"She claimed a great many things," Lucien said, stepping smoothly out of the shadows.

The inquisitors turned instantly. Sister Mira’s hand went to the hilt of her blade, her posture tensing, but Lucien calmly raised his hands in a gesture of peace.

"I’m not here to fight," Lucien said. "I’m here to offer you something." He reached inside his inner robes and produced a neatly sealed scroll. "Evidence that Queen Veyra has been involved in activities far more damning than anything she has accused us of."

He held out the document. Right now, Lucien was giving them the exact same kind of forged evidence he had previously planted with the assassins when Queen Veyra sent her spies to frame Princess Zaria for demonic cultivation.

When Veyra had first invited the Sunfire Temple into the royal court, she believed she was playing a masterstroke. She had secretly hired shadow assassins and dark practitioners to stage demonic disturbances, intending to pin the forbidden magic on Zaria and Lucien. Her scheme relied on the Temple’s absolute hatred for demonic arts; she assumed that once the inquisitors arrived, their zeal would blind them to subtlety and lead them to purge her rivals without question.

What Veyra failed to realize was that Lucien had anticipated her moves from the start. Rather than trying to prove their innocence to a hostile tribunal, Lucien turned her own apparatus against her. Over the course of several days, while Veyra thought her spies were quietly securing damning proof against the princess, Lucien was intercepting her messengers and replacing their ledgers. Using the reality-shaping capabilities of the Veritas Eye, he meticulously forged financial transfers, hidden letters, and secret provincial crests that directly tied Veyra herself to the very demonic cults she claimed to fight.

Every coin spent on assassins was redirected in the records to look like payment for forbidden dark rituals; every shadow operative she employed was given forged credentials identifying them as her personal blood-pact lieutenants. When the Sunfire inquisitors swept the capital, every thread of demonic essence they sniffed out led directly back to Veyra’s private vaults and trusted agents.

In this world, the difference between the Sunfire Temple and the Cathedral was huge. The Sunfire Temple actively hunted down demonic cultivators, executing anyone they found because they truly believed such existences were a direct insult to their gods. On the other hand, the Cathedral had nothing to do with demonic cultivators and generally did not care about them. Their sole focus was connecting with their heavenly gods through prayer and growing strong enough to cross into higher realms. When it came to combat and pure destruction, a single temple like the Sunfire Temple was far more aggressive and dangerous than an individual cathedral. However, if all twelve high priestesses of the Cathedral ever united, they could easily destroy all the temples at once. Because of this balance, they never got in each other’s way and maintained a strict, mutual respect.

Sister Mira took the scroll warily. She broke the wax seal with her thumb and unrolled the parchment, scanning its contents beneath the dim light of the corridor lamps. Her expression shifted rapidly—first confusion, then utter disbelief, and finally a cold, simmering fury.

"These documents suggest the Queen has been funding a demonic cult in the outer provinces," she said slowly, reading through the detailed line items. "Using them to eliminate political rivals. Consorting with forbidden practitioners."

"I’ve been investigating her for weeks," Lucien said smoothly. "I didn’t want to present this evidence until I was certain. But given her accusations against the princess, I felt it was time."

The documents were completely fabricated. Every single line, every signature, and every ledger entry was fake. But they were meticulously crafted—financially accurate, chronologically precise, and supported by witness statements that Lucien had carefully planted across the capital over the past several days. The Veritas Eye had woven these details into the fabric of reality so seamlessly that even the Temple’s most rigorous investigators would find no trace of falsehood.

Sister Mira stared at the scroll for a long moment, her eyes tracing the forged stamps. Then she looked up and locked eyes with Lucien.

"Where did you get this?"

"I have my sources," Lucien smiled faintly. "The question is: what are you going to do about it?"

Queen Veyra was arrested within the hour.

Lucien stood quietly on the wide stone steps of the palace courtyard, watching as Veyra was led out of her private chambers in chains—heavy, cold iron links forged specifically to suppress spiritual energy. Her face was pale with fury, but she did not struggle against the guards. She did not scream. She simply walked with her head held high, her dark eyes fixed directly on Lucien as she descended the stairs.

"You did this," she said in a low tone as she passed him. "You fabricated evidence. You manipulated the Temple. You turned my own court against me."

"I did what was necessary," Lucien replied, his voice calm and unbothered. "You tried to have me killed. You tried to have Zaria killed. You poisoned your husband and suppressed your daughter for years. You’re not a victim, Veyra. You’re a tyrant who finally met someone stronger."

She stopped briefly, looking at him, and then laughed—a cold, bitter sound that echoed off the high stone walls.

"You think you’ve won? You think this is the end?" Her lips curled into a sharp line. "Meet me in an hour before I’m imprisoned by the Sunfire Temple. I have some information that might be worth looking into."

An hour later, Lucien walked toward Queen Veyra’s chambers. Because she was a royal figure who had not yet been formally sentenced, she had been allowed to collect her personal possessions—so long as none of them were offensive artifacts or spiritual weapons.

Lucien pushed the heavy doors open and entered the room. Veyra was standing near a polished wooden table, watching him as the heavy wooden doors swung shut behind him.

"You asked to see me before the Temple took you," Lucien said with a slight smile. "You said you had information. Tell me now, and I might make your imprisonment more comfortable."

Veyra’s eyes narrowed instantly. "The information is worth more than comfort."

"Then tell me what it is, and I’ll decide what it’s worth," Lucien said, leaning back slightly against the doorframe.

She was silent for a moment, her gaze searching his face for any sign of weakness. Then she smiled—a thin, dangerous smile that did not reach her eyes.

"There is an artifact," she said quietly. "The Heart of the Veylcrest. But it is just the bait. Beneath it lies something far more valuable. A fragment of a Primordial Scripture. The kingdom’s founders sealed it away centuries ago, and no one has been able to access it since."

Lucien’s expression did not change. He kept his posture completely relaxed.

"Ohhh," Lucien drawled softly. "What if you’re lying?"

In truth, Lucien knew she was telling the truth. When he had secretly entered her private vaults earlier to steal the financial scrolls, his Origin Heart had reacted to the deep space beneath the floor. He had felt that something powerful was hidden deep below the room, though he hadn’t known exactly what it was. By claiming she was lying now, he was deliberately pushing her to give him more details in her desperation.

"I’m not," her smile widened, though her hands clenched tightly into her sleeves. "The vault’s guardian has been waiting down there for centuries. It doesn’t care about kingdoms or bloodlines. It only respects power. And the Scripture fragment is beyond anything you’ve ever encountered."

"And why should I trust you?" Lucien asked.

"Because I have a dead man’s switch," Veyra’s voice turned ice-cold. "If I die, the details of this secret will be sent directly to the Sunfire Temple and every major faction in the region. You could handle them all eventually, but it would be tedious and bloody. Let my son live, and I’ll give you the information you need to survive it."

Lucien studied her face carefully. She was desperate—that much was clear from the tension in her shoulders and the faint tremor in her breath. But she was also telling the truth. He could see it in her eyes and in the rigid way she held herself. She had lost her power, her title, and her court. She had nothing left to lose, and she knew it.

"Your son will be exiled, not executed," Lucien said finally, his tone firm and unyielding. "His cultivation will be sealed so he can never pose a threat. You’ll live out your days under house arrest in a distant palace."

Veyra’s jaw tightened in anger. "That’s not enough."

"It’s the best offer you’ll get," Lucien said plainly. He turned on his heel to walk away. "Take it or leave it."

He took three steps toward the doorway when her voice called out behind him.

"Wait."

Lucien stopped, holding his position without turning around immediately.

"The guardian is old," she said, her breath coming a little faster. "Very old. The cultivator who created that guardian was at the Law Manifestation Realm. And the Guardian is Peak Abyss Core Realm."

Lucien’s eyes widened slightly. This was something serious—something where even he could not simply force his way through. He was currently only in the Early Abyss Core Realm, and he knew better than anyone that the gap between the Early Abyss Core Realm and the Peak of Abyss Core Realm was as vast as a bottomless chasm. A direct fight against a creation of that level would be suicidal.

"I know you’re not strong enough to defeat it," Veyra continued, her voice bitter. "I saw your strength during the recent fights. You are strong enough to kill any human cultivator in this realm, but an ancient peak-tier guardian? No. You would be crushed instantly."

She paused, letting the weight of her words settle before adding, "But if the princess—if Zaria formally gifts the vault’s contents to you, the guardian won’t attack. It’s bound by ancient array law to respect the royal bloodline’s authority and transfer ownership."

Lucien turned back slowly to face her. "Why are you telling me this?"

"Because I want you to succeed," Veyra said, letting out a short, harsh laugh. "If you fail and die down there, the Temple will take over and destroy everything I spent my life building. If you succeed, you’ll be too busy dealing with the dangerous secrets of the Primordial Scripture to bother with me or my family. Either way, I win."

Lucien looked down at her calmly, his expression cold.

"You’re not winning anything, Veyra."

She looked back at him, her eyes burning with quiet hatred. "We’ll see."