Chapter 156

I turned my gaze away from the cold-hearted saint and looked at Duke Gremoryus.

“What’s going on?”

He had an expression of disbelief as he stared at his knight and magicians, who were starting to sprout tentacles, horns, and grotesque limbs.

From what I could see, there seemed to be one infiltrator among seven or eight people.

Although he had hidden it within his clothing, his hand was oddly writhing.

It seemed that the infiltrators, which had provoked his vengeful spirit, had not sufficiently informed him that his subordinates had also become ‘companions.’

But… why did he still seem sane?

By now, he should have either mutated or melted away.

“Valen?”

When I didn’t respond, Sorelassie elbowed me in the side.

I sifted through my memories from before my reincarnation and recalled the time Duke Gremoryus had been infiltrated.

“Goodness!”

A string of expletives escaped my lips.

…There had been a slight error in my calculations.

It was true that he had made a deal with the infiltrator, but he was still in his right mind at that point.

There was no complete infiltration, let alone even his hands having mutated.

If it had been Matheos, he would have surely purified his mind and body easily.

Then he couldn’t be killed.

…I hadn’t come to this city to expel the infiltrators and save the city.

I had come to kill Benechion and seat a new duke to support Jeilliris.

If I helped him suppress the infiltrators here and emphasized that I had done him a favor while demanding an oath of loyalty, what were the chances that Benechion would relent on his vengeful spirit?

…There was no chance at all.

He was the emperor’s relative and the foremost supporter of the crown prince, with four nephews ranked within the top twenty in the line of succession.

His intense familial affection stood out vividly in my memory.

Disturbingly, it was an emotion I could understand well and empathize with.

So I said to Lady Trentia and Lady Sorelazie.

“It seems Duke Benechion’s power is strong enough not to reveal his true self even under the veil of discernment. Please support me. I need to burn him with the flames of Incantation.”

It was indeed unfortunate.

“Lady Trentia. Stick close behind me. We must cut through the soldiers and knights who don’t know the duke is an infiltrator.”

She responded in a robust voice.

“Yes, Your Highness.”

“Lady Sorelazie. Take care of the saint and help fight against the infiltrators. We need to emphasize that we’re not here to fight the Duke’s entire house, but to stop Benechion’s personal infiltration.”

Lady Sorelazie narrowed her deep blue and yellow eyes and asked.

“You’re telling me to assist a blind fool who doesn’t even think about the power he holds, kneeling and begging to use it, while also helping the leaders of witch hunters and heretic inquisitors, who are the enemies of mages?”

I replied, drawing my sword with an inspired voice.

“Exactly. You understood correctly. You’re indeed clever, sister.”

Lady Sorelazie cast me a disdainful look and then poked the saint with the end of her staff to get him up.

Lady Trentia murmured, witnessing this rude attitude, “Oh, my Lord.”

I observed the infiltrators and the knights and magicians entangled in battle in the corridor.

“We’re in chaos. It’s a complete frenzy.”

Lady Trentia turned back to me.

“Your Highness, coarse language is neither proper for a knight nor for a duke.”

“No. Look over there. It’s really glowing.”

One of the infiltrator knights had a distended belly like a plump frog shining brightly.

Lady Trentia frowned as she noticed the moving light.

“Your Highness, that’s not light.”

“Is that so?”

Whoooosh!

The glowing entity radiated outward in a fan shape, rising from the belly to the chest, then to the neck, and finally to the face.

“Ahhh!”

Dozens of heavily armored infantrymen clad in black iron were thrown to the ground as they faced off against the infiltrators.

The light seeped into the gaps of the heavy infantry’s armor like divine power or boiling oil, and elite soldiers began to perish within seconds.

Nearby, an infiltrator clad in rock-like exoskeleton opened its mouth, nearly the size of a carriage, and released a gray mist.

The magicians tried to stir the wind to disperse the mist, but the fog that lay on the ground crawled like slime and froze the soldiers in place.

Kreeeeek!

An infiltrator unleashed a mental wave.

A sinister violet wave shook the corridor.

Of course, the foremost soldiers here were also mana users, so no one fell victim to the wave.

However, the soldiers bracing themselves began to stumble, and the infiltrators seized the opportunity to run wild.

“Ahhhh!”

“Gahhh!”

As giant hands and feet swung, the soldiers became like squashed fruit.

I exhaled monotonously.

“Lady, we must break through the breach and charge.”

The wide corridor, measuring 12 meters in height and 15 meters in width, felt too narrow with giant infiltrators rampaging.

Lady Trentia responded in a voice that showed no signs of intimidation.

“Were you not planning to do so?”

I shook my head and wrapped yellow mana blades around my sword.

“On the other side lies the Emperor’s will and undying glory.”

Lady Trentia and I leapt into the chaos of battle, where the infiltrators and the Duke’s knights were intertwined.

* * *

“Duke Sorelazie, do you have any idea what Duke Valencius is thinking?”

“…Could you please keep your mouth shut? I can smell divine power.”

After a moment of deliberation, Lady Sorelazie answered like that.

Under normal circumstances, no matter how much discomfort she felt towards the clergy, she would not have said something so extreme.

However, everyone visible in this place was either an enemy or a potential enemy, and the only allies—judges and administrative officers—had long since fainted.

Matheos smiled faintly as he recalled the magicians with whom he had exchanged heated words near the slums that day.

“You’re still the same.”

For a moment, old memories flickered in his solemn and sturdy face, then faded, and he gazed at the high-ranking clergy occupied with fleeing along with the infiltrators and the Duke.

“I see that some knights and magicians are missing. They must be escorting the Duke already.”

“How embarrassing. I had no idea the church’s laws had become so thoroughly tainted by the secular world.”

Surprisingly, things progressed smoothly.

Although they initially struggled in confusion, the Duke’s elite soldiers quickly reformed their ranks, and the infiltrators were beginning to fall one by one.

To begin with, they had mutated in a situation where they weren’t prepared to fight, and their old companions viewed it as betrayal, igniting their fury.

“Die! Die! Die!”

Axes and spear tips imbued with sharpness and resilience magic arced gracefully as they aimed for the ankles of the infiltrators.

The remaining clergy’s ‘sacred weapon’ blessing added power, and the axe, glowing faintly with divine power, shattered the ankles of the monsters in divine embrace.

And then a knight wielding a mana blade rushed in like a lightning bolt.

Whoooosh!

Having honed their martial skills for decades, they easily dodged the flailing hands and limbs of the fallen infiltrator.

Stab! Stab! Swoosh!

And then they pierced their eyes with longswords or decapitated them and crushed their heads.

One infiltrator attempted to scream as if the sky was falling.

Creak—!

!!

!

But it merely gaped in shock without uttering any sound.

The Duke’s magicians had cast a high-level absorption barrier around the infiltrator, sealing its mental waves.

As they unleashed electric shocks, fireballs, and wind blades to cut off limbs, knights rushed in without fail.

“Not too shabby after all.”

Lady Sorelazie gave the finest praise she could afford to the magicians from outside the Ivory Tower and then cast a glance at the sixteen-legged quadrupedal hunting dogs rushing towards the Duke’s magicians.

They shot flaming arrows, and the knights swung their swords, but for a moment, the infiltrator’s body turned hazy and began to meld into the air.

“!”

The magicians gasped as arrows of fire and swords sliced through the air.

“Shockwave.”

Seeing the infiltrator’s mouth split into four, Lady Sorelazie muttered softly.

Flash!

A blue current shot forth from her staff like a bullet, and the transparently flying hunting dog was knocked back as if it had barreled into a bull, rolling across the corridor floor.

“Grrr!”

The infiltrator-hunting dog stood again, scratching the floor with its dozens of limbs, and Lady Sorelazie struck the ground with her staff.

“Stone Thorns.”

Thud! Thud! Thud!

From the floor of the corridor, three-meter-long thorns made of rock and metal erupted, piercing the body of the infiltrator.

The infiltrator attempted to turn translucent again.

“Shockwave.”

Flash!

It merely rolled on the spiked ground once more.

“…Thank you.”

The Duke’s magicians exchanged grateful glances with Lady Sorelazie.

“How unexpected.”

Lady Sorelazie responded with a playful smile.

* * *

Saint Matheos stepped toward the outside of the corridor upon witnessing this scene.

“Where are you going?”

He heard Lady Sorelazie’s voice but held up one hand to dismiss it for now.

He prepared to engulf the entire city in the ‘veil of discernment,’ fully aware of the exhaustion of his divine power.

Duke Valencius had asked him to sweep up just this Volcano Mansion, but he felt compelled not to do so.

Matheos did not take his feelings lightly.

He was a saint, after all, and his slight discomforts tended to be quite accurate.

He stood on the slopes of the volcano, overlooking the treasure city of Kimerlion.

A city of 200,000 people, adorned with fortresses on every mountain and mines in every valley.

“Hah.”

Deep lamentation filled Matheos’s profound black eyes.

Uncharacteristically, his sturdy body swayed.

Smoke was rising from at least over a hundred locations.

He could sense the horrifying aura of the ancient ones coming from the tunnels, fortresses, and city streets.

‘Duke Valencius. Surely, you wouldn’t…?’

It was improbable that he would not conspire with his younger sister to demonstrate a model to the city.

What if he already knew that infiltrators were operating here?

Moreover, what if they had been biding their time to gather their strength and create chaos?

Let the church burn it all down or the emperor drop meteors.

Either way, it would serve as a demonstration for those who would refuse to pledge loyalty before making that demand.

“Lord.”

He traced a cross over his body to regain his composure and began to pray silently.

Having been a seminarian who enjoyed serving the slums and a saint in his twenties after experiencing the voluntary infiltration of his companions.

But now he was a duke, and he understood the perspectives and backgrounds of the powerful figures such as the Archbishop Hong and the Emperor.

“My Father, my light.”

But no matter what background existed, it was not more important than saving the person before him or helping the people.

“Please hear this son’s prayers.”

If he could save them, so much the better.

“I raise my voice on behalf of this land and its people.”

He was the saint sent by the gods for humanity.

“Please rain down the light’s sledgehammer from the heavenly realm.”

Before long, perhaps the organizing within had finished, or perhaps they had noticed him leaving, the clergy began to emerge one by one, following him in prayer.

“Gaaaah!”

At that moment, Matheos saw an infiltrator furiously climbing up the volcano.

The fully mutated creature, resembling a gigantic red lizard, exuded a sense of wariness even to the saint.

He couldn’t afford to leave his place while offering this prayer.

Holy knights and priests resolutely blocked the stairs.

Matheos furrowed his stern face.

Though they, too, were priests who wouldn’t take offense from anyone, he was uncertain whether they could overcome that infiltrator.

“…You all.”

“Saint!”

An elderly priest with a face full of wrinkles respectfully bowed his head.

“It’s an honor to see you in this lifetime…”

Tears streamed down the face of the emotional priest.

Not just the priest but also the holy knights and purifiers were similarly shedding tears.

The holy knight pounded his fist against his breastplate twice and shouted.

“We shall fight to the end! The saint is with us!”

“We shall knock on heaven’s door without shame!”

Divine power surged through the weapons of the holy knights and purifiers, and in response, the infiltrator roared.

Matheos struggled to calm the turmoil in his heart, praying earnestly.

He prayed for the strength to save even them.