Chapter 97

The waves of the ‘Rolling Plains’ were triangular masses of dark clay and rock, reaching heights and lengths from hundreds of meters to several kilometers.

The slopes varied from steep to gentle, and the monastery was constructed on a gently sloping “wave” that was steep enough to prevent attackers from easily climbing while providing a flat area.

We stood at the edge of a sharp cliff behind the cathedral, which rose high above the waves.

We had received permission to go anywhere, and even if we hadn’t, there weren’t many places the saint and the noble couldn’t go in the empire.

However, looking down at a cliff that seemed to be around 400 meters high, I found it hard to feel any eagerness to descend.

“Duke Valenciaunos. Where is the path?”

“Come this way.”

I took about five steps back from the cliff, crossing over the surrounding fence and pushing through a tangle of weeds.

Matheos followed me with a dubious expression.

“It’s too dark. Maybe that’s a blessing. If I could see below, I might have fainted.”

“I was just thinking about lighting a fire.”

“Is that really necessary?”

“Are you saying you can go down this cliff in the dark without a fire?”

Both I and the saint were accustomed to substantial darkness.

But the path I had discovered was dubious enough that I questioned whether it could even be called a path.

I checked several times, wondering if I had gone the wrong way.

Matheos squinted his eyes, murmured something, and a gentle white light emanated from his body.

“It would be better to descend slowly, Duke.”

“I think so too.”

At the inwardly carved edge of the cliff, there was a spiral staircase leading down.

Thanks to the indented terrain, there were supports on three sides, but one side was completely open.

I politely extended my hand to the saint.

“Since you are illuminating the way, please lead.”

Matheos replied coldly and urgently.

“If you don’t want to see me illuminating, then you should lead, as commanded by God’s representative.”

I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry, but for now, I obeyed the saint’s words.

“Yes, Saint.”

The staircase was made of wooden planks rather than stone.

Occasionally, it would sway or break, raising dust and startling me.

Looking up at the supports above, I saw that several were cracked.

It wasn’t a matter of poor workmanship; it appeared they had no intent to use it for long.

“By the way, it seems you can’t use flight magic, Duke Valenciaunos?”

“I know the spell, but I haven’t dared to attempt it yet.”

My magical talent was limited to flames, but I had learned a few convenient and useful spells before my reincarnation.

“Why not? You could just carry me and fly down, couldn’t you?”

“Flying involves wrapping your body in wind magic, which is much more difficult than it seems and consumes a lot of mana. That’s why the elders of the Ivory Tower don’t just fly on brooms or carpets.”

Before gaining my abilities, I couldn’t fly due to a lack of mana.

Now, while my mana had increased quite a bit, I still wasn’t free enough to soar through the skies.

“Doesn’t His Majesty the Emperor fly around quite well?”

“He is not human.”

“By bloodline, nobles aren’t all pure humans either, are they?”

“Even accounting for that, he is not human. He is simply Jeilliris.”

Even such a conversation seemed necessary to maintain sanity.

The night breeze brushed against my cheek.

It felt refreshing when riding a wyvern, but now my shoulders were trembling.

A horrifying sound echoed.

Thud!

“Did you hear that?”

“Yes, Saint.”

I hurriedly dashed down to the next step.

The problem was that Matheos, following behind me, had no choice but to step on the same steps I had.

The gaps between the steps were so wide that it was difficult to skip one.

Naturally, disaster struck.

“Uahh!”

Matheos’s body suddenly fell downwards.

Would the steps below be able to support him?

I didn’t think so.

“Grab me!”

Clutch!

Our hands locked tightly.

It was no trouble for me to pull up one person.

But these steps were garbage.

Thud!

The step I was on also broke under our combined weight.

“World!”

Matheos and I fell, still holding each other’s hands.

Crack, crack, crack!

“Ah, ah, ah!”

Matheos, who was below, kept hitting his back against the steps.

Thanks to the gentle light emitting from his body, I was able to see the cliff.

If we fell a little further, the stairs would end.

There was still over 200 meters left to the cliff.

I recited my spell desperately.

“Wind! …What was the next part again?”

My mind was blank, and I couldn’t think at all.

“Damn it!”

I sacrificed a massive amount of mana and skipped both the incantation and hand sign, merely uttering the activation word.

“Wings to soar through the sky! Ventus Pennaurus!”

A tremendous amount of mana flowed out, and my body was engulfed in wind.

Swoosh—

Our plummeting bodies hovered in the air.

“Duke. Thank you.”

“No, it’s nothing, Saint.”

Was my voice trembling a bit?

He looked back at me, filled with unease.

“Y-yes? What more do you want to say?”

“I can’t use this magic for both of us. I’m barely holding on right now; let’s descend via the stairs.”

I helped Matheos onto the few remaining steps.

He looked at me as if about to shout “foul!”

* * *

As Valenciaunos had predicted, below the stairs was a cave leading into the cliff.

It was a tunnel approximately 3 meters in height and width.

Glowing moss similar to that which inhabited the underground capital was growing on the cave walls.

The difference was that the light emitted by this moss was warmer and more vibrant.

Valenciaunos soon realized the true nature of that power.

“Is it permissible to use divine power to create living things?”

Matheos nodded with a cold gaze.

“…Most things one can do with divine power are what Radiance has permitted. While he does not desire to see us drown in indulgence, he also does not wish for us to engage in extreme austerity.”

Valenciaunos shrugged and smiled slyly.

“I had no choice. How can I help that my skills are only at this level?”

“…I understand.”

His expression seemed to say he completely did not understand.

“Saint, it’s not persuasive to speak with that expression.”

“If my sincerity hasn’t reached you, it is not because I haven’t shown my heart, but because you are unprepared to believe.”

Valenciaunos smiled bitterly as he walked in stride with the saint.

In fact, this was something he wanted to say.

He was a duke, and Matheos was a saint.

There were knights and devotees who would soon uphold their will as justice, therefore they could change the world with mere will.

They were not those who followed the laws but those who made the laws, bearing greater responsibilities and, as such, greater rights.

Valenciaunos believed that those like him should actively exercise those rights.

The head of the monastery, the vice-principal, the nun, all seemed suspicious.

They were doing something with the holy relics, and infiltrators had sent contaminated reagents to the monastery, while the young noble of a count’s family embroiled in an ongoing war stood somewhere unknown.

With this level of suspicion gathered, his way was to act decisively, which was also the church’s method.

‘This isn’t what I’m used to. I thought it would change as I knew it, but perhaps it’s because we’re still one family.’

He remembered Matheos from the world before his reincarnation.

It was the Black Saint Matheos who had burned an entire village just because one infiltrator emerged.

In the process, it was revealed that twelve others were amalgamated.

From an eighty-year-old man to a three-year-old child, they were all infiltrators.

This was always the case, and as a result, more aggressive measures were preferred.

‘I received a revelation too. What would happen if the saint doubted the revelation?’

They were not required to provide tangible proof for their thoughts and judgments.

If they commanded, those beneath them would follow or refrain.

However, if they forbade, no one would act.

Thus, they had to take initiative.

“Saint.”

“What is it, Duke?”

“You wouldn’t just construct the monastery anywhere.”

“Indeed. It must be on high ground, in a sunny place, ideally where mana naturally converges.”

Valenciaunos placed his hand on the hilt of his sword.

“Do you know that such land is also favored by infiltrators?”

“Excuse me?”

Matheos turned back to Valenciaunos, surprised by the statement.

He forgot for a moment that he was angry.

“Don’t infiltrators like deep, damp underground areas?”

“Avoiding the church’s gaze has left them with few places where mana collects well. Surely, to draw strength from the ancients, they’d prefer mana-rich locations?”

“Indeed. It seems they are adopting a form of religion as well.”

“Then, isn’t this place precisely where they would prefer?”

Directly below the monastery and able to receive the energy of the ley lines.

As Valenciaunos stepped forward, drawing his sword, Matheos radiated a gentle light, scanning the surroundings.

“I don’t sense the presence of infiltrators.”

“Do you know who we are suspicious of? They could conceivably hide it.”

Valenciaunos took three steps ahead of Matheos into the cave.

He paused at a corner that soon appeared, glancing back at Matheos with a low voice.

“Do you absolutely need to see? I think it would be sufficient for me to see this alone.”

Matheos nodded.

“Yes.”

Valenciaunos stepped aside, and Matheos peered into the inner chamber around the corner.

“God of Radiance.”

The chamber was spacious, containing thirty corpses lined up in two rows, each with their heads facing towards the center.

The bodies wore armor as if they had been drawn from a battlefield and belonged to well-built men.

From their bodies sprouted dozens of black feathers, and their faces and heads were covered in rags of a reddish-brown hue.

Matheos noticed the veins and tendons in those rags twitching and realized they were a kind of bizarre creature.

The gruesome fragments of flesh seemed to wrap around the heads of the men lying in rows, rising in the middle of the room like candlesticks or large mushrooms.

The column reached chest height, and atop it was a clump the size of a head, again covered in black feathers.

It resembled the egg of some entity.

Taking a deep breath, Matheos spoke.

“It appears to be a breeding ground for the ancients. But I don’t understand why I didn’t notice it.”

Valenciaunos pointed to the inscriptions on the walls, floor, and ceiling of the room.

“It’s a blocking spell. The cave moss is inefficient, but it can neutralize two different energies. They must have used contaminated reagents here.”

Matheos murmured weakly.

“Why on earth… No, it’s not important why. What truly matters is…”

Valenciaunos didn’t want to call his hesitation weakness.

But at this moment, a different virtue was needed.

“Saint, will you grant them rest along with me?”

Matheos checked the corpses.

His chest was rising and falling gradually.

They were not corpses.

A flash of rage surged in Matheos’s black eyes.

“Yes.”

The divine power that had been roiling within him began to radiate warmth.

Then, a voice he had heard before came from behind.

“Saint! It’s dangerous!”

The young nun he had apologized to was running into the cave.

Strangely, her voluminous nun’s habit was not fluttering.

Matheos did not recognize that, but Valenciaunos did.

“Fiery, piercing flame!”

An arrow-like flame cut through the air.

Thud—

With a sound devoid of tension, the flame pierced through the young nun’s body, and she collapsed to the ground.

“Duke!”

Matheos gasped, lifting Valenciaunos and pushing him against the wall, but Valenciaunos did not even flinch, delivering a harsh retort.

“Saint! Do you not remember the steps broke when we descended?”

“!”

Caw-caw-caw—

An eerie cry echoed in the cave, and the young nun rose again.

Sharp black feathers protruded through her nun’s garb, emerging from beneath her flowing sleeves, and her legs visible through her skirt were covered in scales.

A large metallic beak protruded from her beautiful face, and her blue eyes turned red.

“God of Radiance.”

Matheos murmured with a voice that had lost its world.

He couldn’t comprehend it.

What had transformed those who already knew the light?

“Why do you subject the faithful to such trials?”

Caw-caw-caw—

A wave of mental energy shook the cave, and Valenciaunos charged towards the transformed nun.