Chapter 165

(165)

About 300 km from the capital Silentalouon, there was an abandoned monastery on a rocky mountain.

Due to rumors that banshees and wraiths appeared at night, no one dared to approach the monastery.

Though gangsters and mercenaries sometimes ventured there to play the lord, none returned.

Deep in the prayer room, an irreverent banquet was being held once again today.

“AAAH!”

“Please, let me go.”

“Brother!”

One by one, those struggling in the steel cage climbed onto the altar.

The bound individuals watched as their hearts were pulled out and died.

The hearts were offered to their god, while the bodies returned to the thirty or so devotees of the Corruption Church gathered there.

The infiltrators seated at the long table appeared little different from wandering monks.

They wore loose black robes tied at the waist with ropes, the hoods rising high like those of chefs, the top part flat.

“Hmm. The quality is quite good.”

“The lord will surely be pleased.”

“Next time, let’s prepare even younger children.”

“Haha. Truly, you are a priest.”

Thanks to the hundreds and thousands of silver candlesticks, the room was not too dark.

However, the inside of the infiltrators’ robes could not be seen.

A dense darkness seemed to settle over their faces, as if it would never disperse.

When they held pieces of red meat with both hands and tore into them, occasionally a long, split red tongue would dart out from within the darkness, scattering the meat.

By the time they finished their feast, the hearts on the altar were dried up as if they were those offered centuries ago.

The devotees rejoiced at the fact that their god had accepted the offerings and prepared for union.

Originally, the union ritual was conducted through the flesh of corruption in the reality.

However, instead of prostrating before the altar, they dried and ground the leaves of a hallucinogenic plant with red spots and stuffed the pipe with the mixture.

As they were devotees who had to infiltrate society and gather people, they could not fully devote their bodies, and the ritual was only conducted in the world of dreams.

Thick smoke billowed up, and a nightmare-like colossal being revealed itself before their eyes.

A black mountain goat with millions, tens of millions, hundreds of millions of tentacles floated in the night sky.

Each tentacle glistened with a black, viscous substance, which rained down like droplets, covering the devotees.

Swoosh—.

The devotees, covered in black goo, began to awaken from their dreams one by one.

It felt as if they had just inhaled the smoke, but already the eastern sky was brightening.

For a moment, they silently praised the grace of the old god, and without anyone saying it first, they began to speak.

“The Great Lords will gather in the capital.”

“It is a crisis but also an opportunity. There is no more defenseless existence than the lords who have left their castles and the kings who have departed from their kingdoms.”

“Indeed. This is a chance to gather devotees and launch a full-scale assault.”

“There are several devotees under me who have fully accepted his grace. I will take them and make history.”

This was a suggestion for a direct attack.

At that moment, the infiltrator priest who had been praised for bringing good offerings cautiously spoke up.

“An external attack will only unite them. We must divide them from within and make them crumble against each other.”

“It won’t be easy. Several children within the capital have died.”

“There are volunteers searching for truth, but it’s not a situation where we can function as an organization.”

“This is where those yellow-eyed monsters are holding strong.”

Considering the weight of his speaking rights, such opposition was unusual.

However, the priest who had brought the offering did not back down.

“I have a child I raised; would you like to meet him?”

A young boy entered the room.

He was dressed in a gray robe, and his gaze was cold and settled.

No aura of corruption emanated from the boy.

The robes of the opposing priests flared wildly.

“Indeed, if that child goes, he might penetrate even those yellow-eyed monsters.”

“That’s right. If he can create chaos without revealing himself, that would be best.”

“Child, go ahead.”

One priest stood up and affectionately tousled the boy’s white hair.

At that moment.

Bang!

A tremendous sound that shook the heavens echoed.

Stone, wood, and bricks tumbled down, creating a hole in the monastery’s ceiling.

“What’s going on?!”

Screams burst forth from amidst the thick dust.

Screeech—!

A spear plunged through the hole and stuck into the floor.

Crack, crackle!

And the next moment, blue lightning burst forth, drawing circular ripples.

Priests in black robes hurriedly leaped away, but the blue lightning engulfed them like waves.

Crackle!

“Guh!”

“Damn it!”

The infiltrator priests rolled on the floor.

With hell blazing in their brains, they, possessing human bodies, could not easily escape the shock of being electrocuted.

They realized the identity of their attackers through the hole in the ceiling.

Monsters adorned with scales and great wings filled the twilight sky.

“The Order of the Silver Knights!”

* * *

It was still an early dawn.

However, the knights and battle magicians of the Order of the Silver Knights flying high hundreds of meters in the sky saw the sun rising in the eastern sky.

“We have subdued the priests! We’re now moving into the extermination operation.”

“Thirty full-grade infiltrators and fifty partial-grade infiltrators! Warlocks, prepare area spells!”

“Two bombardments, then we dive in. Let’s go!”

The knights of the Order of the Silver Knights tightened their reins.

Wyverns, each measuring 20m in span and 15m in body length, howled as if to rend the sky.

“Kraaaak!”

Thirty wyverns formed a V-formation, diving toward the ground.

Seeing this, the infiltrator devotees exchanged glances.

“They’re coming.”

“O our God.”

“Grant us the power to punish those shameless beings.”

Horrific flesh swelled, and a total of eighty infiltrators revealed themselves.

A giant measuring 11m tall with six eyes, a tree-man summoner bearing an accursed spirit, a human with three crocodile heads, a skeletal nun draped in black feathers, and a gigantic serpent with two long legs…

These were monsters that could possibly stand against an army, yet the knights riding wyverns continued their dive without hesitation.

It was not that they did not feel fear; they knew how to convert fear into strength.

‘Now.’

The knights bared their teeth at the infiltrators.

“Ha!”

They drew the magic tools shaped like spears secured within their saddles and fired them with all their might.

As the speed of the diving wyverns combined with the knights’ strength, the spears flew like flashes of light, piercing the solid bodies of the infiltrators.

Thud! Wham!

Of course, no individual among the eighty infiltrators was weak enough to fall from a single spear strike.

“Grrr!”

“Giiiii!”

Screech!

Instead, they merely retaliated, extending their tentacles and spraying venom.

However, if that spear were a magic tool designed by the greatest magicians of the Hwanhan Magic Guild, the story would change.

Boom!

Announcing the start was Parnesia’s “Flame Wave.”

This magic tool, with a fire wall reaching 5m in height and expanding over a radius of 100m, had been loved the longest in the history of war magic tools.

The infiltrators engulfed in flames rolled on the ground, screaming in agony.

Crackle!

Following this was Sererassie’s “Lightning Wave.”

No spell in the history of lightning magic had ever attacked this wide a range with this level of efficiency, nor had such a spell ever been mass-produced as a magic tool.

The blue lightning swept in a half-sphere pattern over a radius of 75m.

With properties that penetrated armor and exoskeletons, dozens of infiltrators rolled on the ground.

Boom! Crash! Boom!

With thirty of these magic tools dropping, the monastery turned into ruins in an instant.

Trees broke, underbrush burned, and stones and wood flew through the air.

Even the fully mutated infiltrators capable of contending against armies could only scream and roll on the floor.

The diving wyverns didn’t charge at them; instead, they spread their wings around fifty meters above the ground, catching the wind and bouncing back up.

“They’re coming up.”

“We’re almost to a safe zone.”

“Let’s get ready.”

As the Order of the Silver Knights soared back into the sky, ten warlocks prepared great spells.

“Fire.”

“Cluster and explode.”

“Expand infinitely.”

The “Fireball” was not a grand spell that the imperial warlocks had to invest beasts, incantations, and potions to create.

But if that fireball was literally the size of a house, the story changed.

Boom boom boom!

The surviving infiltrators saw the sun barely rising in the eastern sky as if it were falling towards them.

The fireball that landed in the center of the monastery completely engulfed the inner defenses and blew away the outer walls.

The knights of the Silver Order did not touch down until they had dropped the same thing once more.

Every bombardment cost hundreds of gold coins, but when dealing with infiltrators, it was better to overdo it than to hold back.

Proving that point, all the trees burned, rocks melted into vapor, and yet there was a surviving infiltrator.

An infiltrator adorned in crystalline exoskeleton with eight arms.

Charging towards the infiltrator was a great lord with platinum hair and golden eyes slit vertically.

“I will go.”

The infiltrator lifted its crystalline arm to strike the ground, but Valenciaunos instead thrust his gold-glowing mana blade into its wrist.

The infiltrator’s crystalline exoskeleton was as hard as iron, but Valenciaunos’ sword delicately sank in between the exoskeleton and its carapace.

Swoosh!

The Black Tear drew a dark arc, and an arm as thick as a person’s torso fell away.

The next moment, five identical arms, shrouded in blue light, dropped above Valenciaunos’ head.

The shockwave alone had the power to crush several people.

However, as for the great lord, he plunged straight into the infiltrator’s embrace clad not in armor, but in a white uniform.

“Truly brave!”

That was because a knight who followed closely behind him.

Tenitia, with a red ribbon fluttering from her helmet, swung a sword wreathed in red mana.

It was a strike where tremendous power and honed technique perfectly meshed.

Scraatch!

The flames of Hwanhan shattered the infiltrator’s crystalline exoskeleton like thin ice.

A clean upward cut severed three arms in one go, and Tenitia twisted her wrist to cut down with her blade.

Scrape!

One arm caught on the tip of the sword was severed as if it had entered a guillotine.

Valenciaunos sneered at the infiltrator’s remaining hand as he dodged.

“Truly small and unimpressive!”

He mixed the flames of incantation with the mana blade and polished it.

“The Lord will purify your wicked soul with sacred flames!”

A black arc glowing orange like the sun penetrated the infiltrator’s crown.

“I delight only in splitting your head!”

Screeching—

The crystalline exoskeleton melted away with vapor, and the final fully mutated infiltrator knelt down on the floor.

* * *

The knights of the Order of the Silver Knights searched the ruined monastery.

Though Tenitia believed not a single ant could survive, the knights and warlocks astonishingly found four surviving infiltrator priests.

Through their long experience and knowledge from their past, they knew that no interrogation would work on them.

For priests, even mind magic and drugs to induce confession were useless.

Therefore, all infiltrator priests had their throats slit and were cremated right on the spot.

Sererassie spoke with the leader of the Order of the Silver Knights a short distance from the bonfire.

“How was the power from my perspective? How’s the grip?”

“Yes. I was very satisfied with the power. However, as we wore gauntlets to handle the spears, I did feel the wooden handle was a bit slippery.”

“Tell the guild to finish it off with a coarse sandpaper?”

“Yes. Your Highness. If so, I believe truly the best magic tool will be born.”

She keenly observed how her magic tool was being used, her differently colored eyes sparkling with satisfaction.

The knights and warlocks recognized her genius and treated her with the respect she deserved.

“Dear sister, why don’t you be a bit more courteous to me?”

She said to Valenciaunos, who approached her.

Valenciaunos shook his head with a slight smile.

“Being a torturer, patroller, constable, and high diplomatic envoy to the Ivory Tower, I have four titles, whereas you have only two as the guild master and envoy to the Ivory Tower. So my dear sister should be courteous to me.”

“Hrm. Courteous, I don’t know, but seeing your complexion, I suppose I should treat you a bit more kindly. Why do you look like a frail genius…really, why is that? Could it be a side effect of ‘immortality’?”

Sererassie’s playful face grew serious.

Valenciaunos laughed silently.