"Wow! Is this really for me?!"
Soren hugged the massive flag, grinning so widely that drool nearly spilled from her mouth.
"I'm only letting you use it temporarily. If you really want it... considering your work performance lately, I wouldn't mind giving it to you."
Diga spoke casually as he raised his cola and took another sip.
Salinger's Blood Flag, also known as the Godfall Flag, Sealed Artifact Number 0-01. Its true form was the Uniqueness of the Red Priest of the Hunter Pathway, Sequence Zero.
This flag had formed after the fall of the Blood Emperor. It had originally been held by—or rather, sealed by—the Church of the God of Knowledge and Wisdom. Calling it containment would not have been inaccurate either.
To keep the flag obediently in place, the Church of the God of Knowledge and Wisdom had used an ongoing large-scale ritual to seal it. Unless absolutely necessary, no one was permitted to alter the ritual's procedures, which gave Adam an opening.
Making a fixed area operate according to certain rules, with corresponding consequences triggered whenever those rules were violated—this was something the Order Path excelled at.
In particular, to replicate the effect, Adam had made a counterfeit identical to the original in every way except that it could not be used. Even if Herabogen came in person, as long as he did not use Saliger's Blood Flag, he would not be able to distinguish the real one from the fake.
For any Sequence One, the Uniqueness of their own Pathway was an incomparably tempting treasure. It was the stairway to Sequence Zero, one of their most fundamental pursuits.
After all, advancing to Sequence One required painstaking preparation for a ritual, facing the risk of losing control, and guarding against other Sequence Ones targeting them. Without the