According to Archie, there was a certain hierarchy in the Darkless organization. First, there are the 7 “factions,” if you can even call them that.

In the Darkless organization, there are 7 generals. Each general leads a faction of their own because each general represents a different rule or foundation for the organization. While the generals themselves changed quite frequently, the names of their titles never changed.

They were; Eclipse, Architect, Life, Death, Greed, War, and Judgement. While Eclipse and Architect don’t have factions since they do everything independently, the rest do, including Judgement.

“You know, Judgement was the commander’s title before he died.” Archie commented halfway through explaining the titles, factions, and hierarchy.

“You keep your title when you become commander?” Silas raised a brow.

“Of course. We have factions here. The commander is voted in by the rest of the generals. Unlike those royal inbreeding bastards who couldn’t give a flying shit about their people other than the fact that they pay them taxes, we have equality. Everyone has a voice.” Archie spat.

‘Not really democracy or equality, but I guess it’s a step in the right direction.’ Silas thought to himself.

If he had to be honest, he wasn’t a fan of democracy. Anarchy fit him a lot more, but if he had to think of the people, democracy would probably benefit them the most.

“Why else do you think I’m not giving you the Architect title?” Archie rolled his eyes.

“Wait… I’m being made a general just because a place happened to open up?” Silas was flabbergasted. What kind of idiot… No. There was probably an explanation.

Archie wasn’t dumb, after all. He was smart, calculative, cold… He was the kind of person to manipulate an entire organization into thinking he was a good candidate to become the next commander before throwing his commander into the hands of fate until he eventually bit the dust.

He was the exact kind of person the Architect title needed, and he was also the person Silas didn’t want to turn into.

He had already lived out a life of nihilism and self-pity. He didn’t want to be that person anymore. He wanted to protect his family… That’s the only reason he’s here…

‘Who the fuck am I lying to?’ Silas’ inner voice sounded genuinely confused.

“Of course not. If I wanted you to have the title of Architect so badly, I’d keep you as my right-hand man and train you to replace me when I eventually die. 

I will give you the title Judgement because I need someone like me to dish out punishment. I can’t do everything myself, and as Judgement, you will be the embodiment of the law.” Archie explained, making Silas frown.

After a few moments of silence, Silas finally asked.

“You know about my elements, right?”

“Silas…” Archie sighed while rubbing the bridge of his nose and leaning forward.

“Everyone here as a secret. Mine is my identity, and so will yours, though you already seem to have more secrets than I do. Everyone here has something to hide. No one is trustworthy, not even me. No matter how close you think you are with someone, they will stab you in the back when it pleases their interest. 

We do not ask about your secrets, because we don’t want you to ask us about ours. Do you understand?” Archie explained while Silas silently nodded.

The rest of the conversation was quite bland. Archie explained who the generals were and what they represented. After that, Silas was directed toward his tent, where he sat on his makeshift bed and began cultivating.

Everyone had their own thing to do, and for one of the first times since coming to Gilea, Silas wasn’t interrupted by anyone or anything while cultivating. 

Silas realized that after reaching the topaz core, his mana absorption rate had gone through the roof. Of course, it couldn’t be compared to his monstrous rate of absorption when he was breaking through, nor was it enough to balance out the scales and keep the rate of cultivation the same.

It would probably take him longer to reach the amethyst core than it had taken him to reach the topaz core since it took more focus and mana to break down the impurities. 

‘Now that I think about it, did I release any impurities?’ Silas thought to himself with a slight frown. He didn’t feel it come out of him, but maybe it was destroyed the moment it touched that mana vortex he created?

Nevertheless, there was no bottleneck between the topaz and amethyst cores, so he wasn’t too worried about it suddenly popping up.

However, what he was worried about was fighting another person on the same level as the commander, or even Archie. 

Sure, since he was breaking through, he was able to absorb mana extremely quickly and negate the effects of toki; however, now that he didn’t have that, he doubted that he would even get near them before being flattened. 

His body was most likely at the very low end of the dull-amethyst core. While the purity of his mana hadn’t reached that level, his skill in spell casting more than made up for it. If he used everything in his arsenal, he could probably beat an experienced and well-versed mage like Keira.

Silas continued cultivating, and before he knew it, night had passed, and the sun was rising once more, the sounds of chirps echoing through the forest and waking Silas from his cultivation.

‘I should probably sleep more…’ Silas sighed. He didn’t feel too tired, but that was probably due to that was coursing through his channels throughout the entire night. The evolution blessing probably had a hand in it too.

Walking out of his tent, Silas went through his usual routine of washing his face with cold water, training his body for an hour through complicated sets of workouts, and eventually showering with the use of water magic.

“Game?” A voice echoed from behind Silas, but he didn’t react.

“Game!” 

‘Oh shit, that’s me.’ 

“Yeah?” Silas turned around with a wry smile, his eyes shining with a faint emerald as he looked at the woman before him.

She had beautiful aqua-blue curly hair and sapphire blue eyes that shone like two tiny stars. She wore a simple vest and pants, yet her hourglass figure was as clear as day. However, what drew Silas’ attention were her semi-defined arms and legs.

‘I wonder how much she can bench.’

“We’re leaving for the main base in an hour. Pack your tent and get ready to move.” She smiled slightly. She wasn’t treating him like a kid, but she still seemed to talk with a softer expression when talking to him.

“Sure. I’ll get ready in 10.” Silas smiled at her before taking some gel and combing his hair back. He assumed the gel was made from animal fat, but he didn’t want to ask. Ignorance was bliss sometimes, and he wanted to keep it like that for as long as possible.

He was in God’s hands now.

Packing everything quite quickly, Silas practiced earth magic until the time came for them to leave. 

He didn’t have anything big to pack, so he didn’t really have to worry; however, Archie had an entire table in his office tent, so the real question was, how the hell does one pack an entire office into their carried bags.

‘Well…’ Silas looked back before letting out a wry smile.

‘Goodbye for now… Uladia.’

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[A/N: Archie is short for Architect. No one knows his real name.]

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