Lambard was standing on the roof of his castle, looking in a specific direction in the distance.
There was too much distance between him and the Holy Priests, but still, he was able to see Elora and Thalia clearly. He looked quite upset, standing with his hands behind his back.
It hadn't been long since Elora and Thalia were in the city to take part in the Auction, and now they were here again. However, this time they weren't here for anything good. It was evident that they were here to attack him.
A maid stood right beside Lambard, looking in the same direction. Even though she was also very special, even she couldn't see Thalia and Elora clearly as she didn't have the Numen, which was helping improve Lambard's vision.
"They are waiting for more forces. It looks like they are really determined this time," the maid commented, being able to guess just why these people were waiting.
"They know we won't be able to attack them. They can certainly afford to take the time they need," Lambard asserted. The city was one of his most powerful Numens, but it was a defensive Numen.
All the defense mechanisms were such that it couldn't attack anyone unless they were attacked first. The Churches knew about this. They knew that Lambard wasn't someone who could attack first, as his offensive power was quite weak when he came out of his city.
If he was a Warlord inside the city, then he was only a decent warrior outside. That's also why he rarely left the city. He had Numens that could be used to attack as well, but even they weren't strong enough to help him against such a force. That's also one of the reasons he wanted the Eye of Osiris that was kept at the Academy of Elements.
He only told Gabriel that he wanted the Eye of Osiris because he was interested in learning about the history through it, but even he didn't tell Gabriel one thing. His true goal wasn't just to learn about the history. His true aim was to use the history to his advantage.
He was called the Lord of Numens, but even he knew that he didn't have enough Numens. Only a fraction of all the Numens had been found, and amongst the ones that weren't discovered yet, there were some really powerful Numens.
He wanted more powerful Numens! He wanted something that was on the same level as the City of Abandon but on the offensive side. He wanted a powerful Numen that didn't restrict him to a place, and there were definitely many. He just needed to know where they were.
The best way to find those Numens was by going through their history. He wanted to use the Eye of Osiris to see through the past of the Demigods to find out where they died. If anything, that was also the place where he could find their Numens.
That's also why he was collecting any random item he could related to the Demigods, as he could use their essence to look at their lives and find the secrets that were unknown so far.
The Eye of Osiris was very important to him. That's also why he couldn't ignore the allure of receiving the eye of Osiris, even though it meant he was going to be offending many people by going through with the plan if he found it.
The greed of these items was too much for him. However, only now was he waking up from that greed. Not only did he not receive the Eye of Osiris, but instead, he received the wrath of these Churches, all thanks to Gabriel.
He was quite angry at Gabriel. All that guy had to do was steal the items and come to him, but instead, he went inside the Tower of Challenges.
"I don't understand one thing though." The maid had a question floating in her head for a long time. She had wanted to ask it even before, but she didn't want to look stupid since Lambard made it seem like it was too obvious.
Before these people even attacked, Lambard already knew that the attack was coming.
"What thing?" Lambard asked.
"Why are they attacking us? Just because we had a link with the person who went there to steal something? The Academy probably already caught Gabriel. They will most probably recover all the Numens as well. Then why is it that these people came here to attack us?" the maid asked.
"Don't they know that a lot of their own people will die as well? Why break the status quo that was established when we sent the Church of Light back over such a small thing?
"Because they are idiots!" Lambard exclaimed. "They think that the Church of Darkness has made a return and that they are in danger. They think I'm working with the Church of Darkness against them."
"Should we just tell them that they are wrong?" The maid asked.
Lambard couldn't help but shake his head in amusement. "Even if we told them now, do you think they'll believe us at this point? They want to remove all the threats, no matter how unlikely. There is only one way to send them back..."
"... By Crushing them!" He exclaimed. "I don't care how many they bring! I don't care what reinforcements they call! If they think they can kill me inside my own stronghold, then they're in for a surprise. They want a bloodbath... I'll give them a bloodbath!"
As Lambard made a declaration, lightning flashed in the sky, revealing his tall figure even more. There was a ring on each of his fingers, each having a different function. One of those rings was the Ring of Apophis that he had called back.
There also remained two pendants around his neck, each having a different gem attached to it. What was different was that this time Lambard was also wearing some earrings.
Even when Lira arrived here last time, Lambard hadn't been wearing as many Numens as he did now. It was as if he was completely prepared for a war that was on the horizon.
