Chapter 161 Juulius Crawford

98th Floor of the Tower.

The 98th Floor of the Tower was enormous, but only approximately 1% of it was inhabited, while the rest was left. Only a few cities were built across the entire 98th Floor, which were all controlled by the Hall of Kadath, while the rest of the Floor was basically ruled by the Magical Beasts who were inhabiting the 98th Floor.

Right now at the moment, a young man wearing pristine white armor with long purple hair and striking emerald green eyes was training in the older man, that was looking very much like him, just several generations older than him.

"Good, you are getting better."

Stated the older-looking man as the younger one blocked the incoming strike with his shield. Both of them had been sparring like this already for several hours without any stops as the older man was instructing the younger one on the combat techniques.

Often pointing out the mistakes or things that could be worked upon and so on, this continued for several more hours until the younger of the duo started getting increasingly tired, as the older one stopped the sparring match.

"For now, it is enough, son."

Stated the older man, whose name was Reinhard Crawford, Grandmaster of the Holy Templar Order of the Hall of Kadath. House of Crawford was a long lineage that had found the Holy Templar Order when it was still not part of the Hall of Kadath, and one of their ancestors, came into agreement with the Hall Master at that time as the Holy Templar Order became the military branch of the Hall of Kadath.

The House of Crawford produced more Transcendents than some of the Higher Worlds in their entire existence. They were hereditary Paladins, and many of them had very strong affinity for the Ascendance through the Path of Immortals, though it was noted that the Immortals of the House of Crawford were stronger than average ones because of the energy all of them possessed.

Reinhard Crawford was the current Head of the House of Crawford as well as the Grandmaster of the Holy Templar Order and he was also a peak Level 100 Legendary Professional with the Holy-Ranked Class.

"You have been assigned as the Personal Knight to the Holy Son of the Hall of Kadath. Soon you will be sent to the 8th Floor of the Tower to carry out your duty."

Stated Head of the House of Crawford Reinhard Crawford as his son nodded in agreement, as this was the duty of each generation of the House of Crawford as they were the sharpest sword and strongest shield of the Hall Master of the Hall of Kadath.

Juulius Crawford was rather young because he was only in his forties; despite his very youthful appearance, much was credited to the bloodline of the House of Crawford, who was said to inherit the Bloodline of the Astral Titans, despite being humans.

Over time, they evolved from average humans to High Humans, as the effects of the Astral Titan Bloodline was very strong on their bodies. Juulius had inherited the Bloodline of the Lighting Destroyer, one of the most destructive of the Astral Titans, which gave him Level 3 Ultimate Ability Lightning Judgement as an innate ability.

"Certainly, father."

Despite being around forty years old, he was still at the Bronze-Tier, albeit he was at the peak of the Bronze-Tier. House of the Crawford didn't practice The Journey because they followed the Path of Immortality as the form of Ascendance, and they could ascend either way because, for them, it was only a matter of energy and some luck.

"Appearetnly the Holy Son's company is getting most interesting... at first the Crown Princess of the Nesser Dynasty whom he started courting and they are now in courtship. Also, we have confirmed that he joined hands with one of the Prophets of the Green Gods named Dharzug."

Mused Reinhard Crawford because it was indeed becoming more and more interesting as some big names were coming up together and joining hands. While the Crown Princess of the Nesser Dynasty could be understood to a certain extent but one of the Prophets of the Green Gods, most probably the Holy Apostle and Divine Champion, on the top of that of the Gork.

That was certainly an interesting development, truth to be told. Orks almost never cooperated with anyone who wasn't Ork, not to mention they were not prone to any cooperation at all because they liked just to kill and smash things.

"Seeing that some Ork chose to work with outsiders is an unusual father."

Commented on the situation, his son Juulius as he could just agree with him because it was certainly the most unusual situation. There was some scheme probably behind all of this, or if the Ork Dharzug was indeed the Prophet, Holy Apostle and Divine Champion, then it was highly probable that he was just carrying out the Divine Will of the Green Gods.

In that case, it would mean that everything was some scheme between the Transcendentals, meaning it was not their place to contemplate about it, but as the loyal and devout servants they were, they just needed to carry out the orders.

"Indeed it is... but this is nothing that we need to be concerned with."

Answered the Head of the House of Crawford as he left the training yard of the mansion of the Crawford House on the 98th Floor of the Tower. He went to prepare the Dimensional Pathway to the 8th Floor so his son could descend somewhere on the 8th Floor of the Tower and start attending to his duty, like the other generations of the House of Crawford had done before him.

The mansion of the House of Crawford was an enormous structure, an architectonic marvel, built by the best dwarven builders and engineered by the most famous Silvermoon architects which were designing parts of the Silvermoon Imperial Capital.

Grandmaster of the Holy Templar Order arrived at the spacious room, which was inscribed by countless runes, as it served as the teleportation room to anywhere he wished. While Reinhard Crawford wasn't master or even proficient in the space element, he knew enough to at least activate the entire thing.

After he set the location to the 8th Floor of the Tower, he received a call on the Holo-Brain from the Hall Master Menuhyutt Faulhaber; as he immediately picked up the call.

"Your Holiness."

Greeted him Grandmaster of the Templars.

"Grandmaster, mobilize part of your Templars and depart to the Roan World; coordinate with the Lord Inquisitor Tiberrius in pulling out the Mind Flyers that have taken root in that world."

Hearing the order, Grandmaster bowed as he ended the call, as it seemed that the years of leisure he spent on the 98th Floor of the Tower training or spending it with his family, have come to an end.

It was long since the Holy Templar Order was mobilized because, for the large part, they were being activated only when the... as that thought stuck in the Grandmaster Crawford's mind, he realized that it was slowly starting once again.

"But Roan... that would be expedition for decades..."

Of course, as both the Grandmaster of the Holy Templar Order and Head of the House of Crawford, he was very well aware of the majority of the Higher Worlds and their specific characteristics, even though it was impossible to know them all because each century new came to existence as some were extinguished.

Roan was one of the bastions of the Mind Flyers; even though it was a High World, there were no Transcendents there because Mind Flyer Transcendents hated staying out of the Void for a prolonged time.

This would be a very long siege, but if they entirely conquered Roan, it would be a great blow to the Mind Flyer Fleets because in truth, they didn't have sovereignty over many worlds, and for them, the worlds didn't really have value aside from plundering their natural resources.

So, each world that they decided to rule was special in some way, and Roan was no different. The thing that made this High World so special and important to the Mind Flyers that one of the Fleets decided to hold it was the natural ore that was being located there.

Something about the ore made the world extremely suitable to cultivate the psionic potential of species and because of that, the Mind Flyers put there not only their hatcheries but also other facilities that were typically stationed on the Capital Ships of their Fleets.

"Maybe I could reach Holiness there... for sure; there would be some Holies on the side of space octopuses."

Reinhard Crawford mused under his breath as he went to another part of the enormous mansion to inform his family that he would be departing for several decades at best, maybe even a century or two at worse, depending on how the conquest would be going.

***

8th Floor of the Tower, Southern Area of the Human Continent, somewhere around the Ironan Mountains.

Ironan Mountains were calm since the time when Samiel Zantaur came here together with the Dark Youngs, who were taken out of the 8th Floor by the Bishop of the Hall of Kadath, Abraham Antigonus.

The shroud was still in the place, and nobody really came here because the place was mainly ignored by everyone, as every Legendary was focusing only on the Qririth, which was destroyed in some kind of abominational ritual.

From the space crack, a figure of a man with purple hair and shining emerald green eyes appeared as the man exited the Dimensional Pathway. He wore heavy-plated armor that of the Holy Templar Order of the Hall of Kadath, as several runes in the Eldritch Speech of R'Lyehian decorated the entire armor.

"I should be somewhere on the 8th Floor... Tytos, come on."

Juulius Crawford arrived at the 8th Floor of the Tower; as he called for his familiar, an enormous white tiger exited the space crack, which then closed swiftly afterward that. The white tiger Tytos was clearly displeased that he was forced to come from a comfortable home here; it was like a nightmare for the overgrown cat.

"I know, I know... I will find you some fat magical beasts or humans to feed on."

Juulius quickly calmed down the overgrown cat, who nodded his big head in agreement. Tytos was relatively young for the white tiger, and from the point of the rest of his species he was still a youngling.

Juulius Crawford continued walking through the Ironona Mountains for another half an hour together with his White Tiger familiar Tytos, as he soon arrived at the exit from the Ironan Mountains, which was in the direction of the demon-controlled territory.

He knew in what way he should go because he had received the map of the 8th Floor to his Holo-Brain beforehand and headed towards the demon-controlled territory, as his final destination was the Goldtooth City in the Demon Continent so that he could assume his duty as the Personal Knight and Protector of the Holy Son of the Hall of Kadath.

Suddenly as he was leaving the Ironan Mountains, his familiar Tytos lifted up his head as he smelled something in the air before roaring several times over, signaling that there were enemies ahead of them. The White Tiger was already at the peak of the Bronze-Tier Level 50, so his power was not to be underestimated.

He then brandished his sword as he went ahead, seeing that the people against whom Tytos wanted him were from the Demon Tribe, a mixture of the Tribes, but mainly from the Golden-Horned Demon Tribe, based on their brown tanned skin and golden horns.

"It appears that the food has arrived."

Juulius muttered to his familiar as yellow lightning cracked around him and his sword, when in a split of a second he disappeared in a flash, and appeared in front of the small group of 7 demons, all of them were Bronze-Tier Professionals. He aimed his sword at the biggest and strongest demon who appeared in charge of the squad, and using the element of surprise; one head rolled on the ground.

Not even a second later, Tytos appeared from the shadows as he lunged at the biggest demon in the group, who was standing around 4 meters tall, probably with a very strong heritage of blood because he looked like a mutated humanoid bear.

Immediately after the first two were brought down, Juulius activated his Level 3 Ultimate Ability Lighting Judgment once more while aiming at the other two of the demons, who had already recovered from the shock that happened, and attempted to defend as the two lighting bolts struck them, and send them crashing into nearby rocks.

Stepping backward, he dodged an incoming strike from one of the remaining two demon soldiers who were still for the game, as he slashed his sword at the demon's hand, severing it entirely in sole exchange as the demon screamed in pain that his hand was severed and blood splurted out, though not for long because his neck was torn apart by the White Tiger Tytos, who was already done with the bear demon.

The only remaining demon seeing that all of his comrades were being killed like pigs in a slaughterhouse or were knocked out, started running for his very own life. A very predictable outcome, but not for much longer because thunderstruck as the demon looked at his chest and saw the Paladin's sword sticking out of his heart, as he fell down onto the ground dead.